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OLD CHRISTIANITY 



AGAINST 



PAPAL NOVELTIES. 



INCLUDING A REVIEW OF 



DR. MILNER'S "END OF CONTROVERSY." 



GIDEON OUSELEY. 



Kai TjfiEv £c5 ayyeXoi itrx^poi \tdov wj ftv\ov neynv, Kai ePaXev sis rtjv da- 
Xaaaav, Aeywv Ourwj hpitrjiiaTi PXriHtfaerai Bal3v\(iH> fi /leyaXij noXis, Kai oi (iij 
evpedr} en. 

"And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it 
Into the sea, saying. Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be 
thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." — Rev. xviii. 21, 



" No falsehood can endure 
Touch of celestial temper, but returns 
Of force to its own likeness." — Milton. 



FIFTH AMERICAN, FROM THE FIFTH DUBLIN EDITION. 




p]&ila&£l|if)fa; an& Nxin ©rlwitj?: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN BALL, A G T. 

1852. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by 

M. SORIN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 






PRINTED BY SMITH & PETERS, 

Franklin Buildings, Sixth Street below Arcb, Philadelphia. 



CONTENTS 



American Preface, 11. 
Address, 15. 

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

Rev. Mr. Thayer's challenge, page 17 — Character of the Christian 
religion, 1 9 — The Scripture a true guide to salvation, 20 — Its different 
versions agree on every doctrine, 20 — Pope Clement XIV. and Dr. 
Manning acknowledge it a sure rule of faith and practice, 20 — The 
author's correspondence with Mr. Thayer, 21 — Dr. Atterbury on Arch- 
bishop Tillotson's controversies with papal divines, 22 — The author 
takes up Mr. Thayer's challenge, and writes his " Defence of the Old 
Religion against Papal Novelties," which, after passing through four 
editions, remains unanswered ! 24 — Remarks on a scandalous letter to 
the author, 25 — A solemn address to Roman Catholics, teachers, and 
people; and to Protestant teachers and people, 26 — Important argu- 
ments, 31. 

THE TRENT CREED STATED. 

The Roman Catholic clergy are bound by oath to believe and teach 
it, 37 — Important observations thereon, 40 — A notable extract from the 
Missal, Tvith interesting remarks, 44 — 46. 

LETTER I. 

ON EXTREME UNCTION. 

A host of Protestant writers unanswered, 50 — Extreme unction no 
sacrament, 50 — The Trent canons on it, &c., self-opposed, 51 — The 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

Trent council in great perplexity, 53 — It and holy orders cannot stand 
together, 54 — Not found in James v. 14, 55 — The apostolical use of 
it, 57 — The refusal of it to condemned persons, not sick, exposes it, 58 — 
Dr. Challoner, in its defence, self-entangled, 59 — It and purgatory de- 
stroy each other, 62 — Pope Innocent overthrows it, 64 — St Augustine, 
with a host of fathers, &c., opposed to it, 66 — Interesting conversation 
with a priest and two laymen on it, 62 — 67 — Extreme unction ruinous 
both to clergy and laity, 68 — Weighty questions, by a sick man, to the 
anointing priest, 70 — The priests, forced to give up this sacrament as 
false, are, with their council, engulfed in sworn self-contradiction! 73— 
Mr. Thayer's challenge retorted, 76. 



LETTER II. 

IXFAntBIlITT DESTHOTED. 

Definition, 77 — Propositions, 78 — Papal doctrines framed to subserve 
the papacy, 80 — The dogma on intention opened ; was designed to 
prostrate the people to the clergy, but, in its reaction, must prostrate and 
annihilate themselves, 81 — Popery a necessarily persecuting religion, 
85 — Infallibility proved a chimera, by four arguments, 87 — Scripture 
destroys it, 89 — " Thou art Peter," &c,, examined, 90 — The ancient 
fathers opposed to it, 93 — It involves blasphemy, 94 — Peter had no 
supremacy, 96 — The popes claim to it an imposture, 98 — Pope Gregory 
declares it to be the mark of antichrist, 99 — The popes exhibited by 
Cardinal Baronius, Platina, and others, as the most flagitious monsters, 
103 — The gates of hell can never prevail against the church of Christ, 
106 — Her true characters stated, 106 — They attach to all true Protestant 
churches, 113 — The papal church corrupt; eight ' general councils 
against her, 126 — Her infallibility destroyed, is clearly of antichrist, 123 
— An important note and warning, ibid. 

Doctor Milner's defence of his church, one hundred and twenty-two 
pages of his book are overthrown by a few plain observations, 116 — He, 
Bossuet, and Manning, did not believe themselves, 122 — He destroys 
his church at once, 123 — The gates of hell prevail against her, 125 — He 
is confuted on extreme unction, seven sacraments, infallibility, supre- 
macy, &c., 129 — Predestination retorted, 132 — His claim to sincerity 
not tenable, 133 — His defence of indulgences and purgatory destroyed, 
166 — His purgatory is the third heaven, 172 — It constitutes its clergy 



CONTENTS. 5 

false prophets, antichrists, 174 — He is defeated on the sacrifice of the 
mass, host-worship, transubstantiation, and half-communion, 278 — 284 
— He is wholly exposed on private confession and absolution, 298 — He 
is shameful on worship in a strange tongue, 318 — On invocation he 
completely destroys himself, his character, and cause, 336 — 343 — His 
defence of miracles is most ridiculous, 346 — His effort, in seven letters, 
for his pope's rule of faith, is futile, and utterly ruins him, his pope, 
church, and clergy, beyond remedy, 375 — The Scriptures the true rule 
of faith, 376 — His artifice with regard to antichrist, and Dr. Doyle's 
sophism, blown up, 379. 



LETTER in. 

PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

Trent council and her clergy entangled in sworn self-contradictions 
and absurdities by purgatory, 134 — Cardinal Fisher and other doctors 
confess it a novelty, 137 — It is disowned by St. Patrick and the fathers, 
138 — Strange notions of some fathers that the blessed virgin and all 
saints pass through a purging fire, 141 — No place in Scripture for pur- 
gatory, 142 — 1 Peter iii. 19, and other Scriptures examined, 143 — St. 
Athanasius and Bede's judgment, 146 — Dr. Challoner and the Roman 
Catholic catechism annihilate purgatory, 148 — The blood of Christ the 
only purgatory, 149 — The oath that binds the papal clergy to purgatory, 
compels them to pronounce the Scriptures, the apostles, the ancients, 
&c., false, 151 — It is a source of much impious wealth, 152 — Questions 
to be put to a priest on it, 152 — An excellent argument from Dr. A. 
Clarke, 154. 

LETTER IV. 

INDUtGENCES IMPIETIES. 

The doctrine stated, 156 — Their use, 157 — Indulgences, purgatory, 
and masses, cannot stand together, 158 — They exalt the pope and de- 
grade Christ, 159 — The pope's cruelty, and an extract from Tillotson, 
159 — Indulgences a source of gain, 160 — The ancients and eminent 
papal doctors against them, 161 — Dr. Moylan obtains an indulgence for 
Cork, from Pius VII., 163 — A curious extract, a note, 164 — The church 
that hath them is, by a papal doctor, pronounced the school of Satan, 166 
1* 



D CONTENTS. 

LETTER V. 

TRANSUBSTANTIATIOK AN IMPOSSIBiriTT. 

When this doctrine began, 177 — Eight important propositions, 178 — 
Canons and creed of the Trent council, 181 — Drs. Gother and Chal 
loner refuted, 183 — Reason, Scripture, and antiquity against it, 189 — 
Conversation with a priest, also an anecdote from Magher, note, 190 — 
Transubstantiation incompatible with Christianity, 193 — Objections an- 
swered ; the term, " body of Christ," in five different senses, 195 — Papal 
divines against it, 1 97 — Dr. Challenor on the 6th of John fully con- 
futed, 199 — The true meaning supported by seven short arguments, 
200 — The Trent council's threefold sense of the eucharist, 201 — Popes, 
doctors, and fathers contend that by " flesh and blood" was meant, not 
the eucharist, but grace, 202 — The expression, "verily and indeed 
taken," in the church catechim, vindicated, 205 — The mass canon de- 
stroys the corporal presence and its ministers, 206 — Testimony of the 
fathers and others on the eucharist, from nearly the apostle's days to the 
thirteenth century, 207 — Pope Nicholas II. and Pope Gregory VII. op- 
posed to each other on this dogma, 219 — It was no article of faith till 
an. 1215, 219 — Helvetian confession on the eucharist, 221 — That of the 
Protestants of France, 222— That of England, 223— That of Luther, 
and the papal story about him and the devil — his character, 224, 250 — 
Calvin's testimony, 226 — Concluding remarks, 226 — 231. 

LETTER VL 

SACRIFICE OF THE MASS ANTICHRISTIAIC. 

The doctrine stated, with propositions destructive of it, 232 — The 
mass necessarily subversive of Christianity, 233 — Fathers and papal 
doctors against it, 234 — The mass and priesthood destroyed by the 
Trent canon, 235 — Drs. Barrington and Challoner, in its defence, con- 
found and cover themselves with eternal disgrace, 236 — St. Paul destroys 
It, 237 — Objections answered, 239 — Conclusion, 240. 

LETTER Vn. 

THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST GROSS IBOLATST. 

The decree for it, 243 — Propositions in confutation of it, 244 — The 



CONTENTS. 7 

decree contains seven blasphemies, 245 — No informed pope or priest 
ever believed this doctrine, 246 — The pope assumes to be true God, and 
above God, note, 248 — Horrible impieties of the Trent council, 249 — 
Difficulties of this worship, 254 — Dr. Doyle bound to idolatry and de- 
struction, 254 — The impious craft of Costerus, 255 — The more wicked 
the doctrine, the more solemnity used in practising it, 256 — Priests 
above angels and men, 258 — Yet they know not if they are either priests 
or Christians, 259 — M. Felix on pagan god-making, compared with 
papal god-making, 260 — The beast and his image, 263 — Concluding 
remarks, 264. 



LETTER VIII. 

HAI.F-C0MM€NI0N A GBIEVOUS NOVELTT. 

Christ's institution stated, 266 — Propositions, 267 — The decrees of 
the councils of Constance and Trent, prohibiting the cup, and charging 
the Lord's institution with error, 267, 268 — The fathers, papal doctors, 
&c., against half-communion, 269 — Bellarmine's confession, 271 — Arch- 
bishop Synge on this subject, 272 — Dr. Challoner's sophistries exposed, 
273 — The expression, « mvM, the priest's main proof, sifted, 275 — Con- 
clusion, 276. 

LETTER IX. 

ON THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

The divine warning, 284 — Its characters found in the Pope's church ; 
Jirst mark, false doctrines, fourteen, stated from, 289 to 300 — Priestly 
forgiveness of sins a gross error, 290 — Protestant absolution stated and 
explained, 292 — Auricular confession reprobated by St. John Chrysos- 
tora, &c., 29.3— This doctrine blasphemes the Son of God, 294— This 
was framed for the papacy by the Trent council, as the priesVs master' 
piece, yes, and the people's ruin ! 295 — Stated by Dr. Challoner, is plain 
priestcraft, 296 — Without three requisites that are impossible, the whole 
is useless ! 296 — It is owned that such pardons are false ; and it follows, 
that the ministers of them are false prophets, antichrists, 297 — Mark 2d. 
The time of the rise of the predicted apostate, as stated by Pastorini,&c., 
200^Mark 3d. Place of his abode, Rome, 306— Mark 4lh. Pride and 



8 CONTENTS. 

exaltation above all men, 310 — Mark 5th. Scarlet array, 312 — Mark 
6th. Mother of harlots, 313 — Mark 1th. Worship in a strange tongue, 
introduced an. 666, by Pope Vitalianus, 313 — A notable advice to Pope 
Paul III. against the Bible as the foe of the church, 317 — Mark Sth. 
Forbidding marriage an inlet to great vpickedness, 319 — Mark 10th. 
Fornication, as its result, polluting all classes of men, and all orders of 
clergy, 321— The testimony of Petrarch and Bridget, 327— Mark llth. 
Idolatries, image-worship, 329 — Invocation of angels and saints in pagan 
blasphemy, 331 — Not taught by God in any age, nor by Christ or the^ 
apostles, 332 — It entangles the Trent Council in self-contradiction, and 
destroys both teachers and people, 334 — Twenty-eight popes, with Car- 
melites and others, belie the blessed Virgin, 335 — No prayers but to God 
through Christ, 338 — Invocation involves the danger of supplicating the 
damned, 343 — Mark 12th. False miracles. A demonstration that 
no true miracle has been wrought in the church of Rome for more than 
twelve hundred years past, 344 — 356 — Mock miracles in the Breviary 
and Scapular, «Scc., 345 — Mr. Thayer converted by imposture, 346 — Dr. 
Doyle and Dr. Murray's miracles detected, 348 — Miracles by magicians 
and demons, 349 — By heretics, 353 — By devils, 353 — How true and 
false miracles can be known, 354 — Priests put to the test, 355 — Dr. 
Stillingfleet's fine caution, 356 — Decrees of a synod in Tuam, in 1817, 
and ratified in Rome, against miracle mongers, note, 356 — Mark I3lh. 
Believing a lie ; the predicted great lie, and its dangers, 357 — Mark 14/^. 
Persecution by the beast and drunken woman, &c., 359 — Papal decrees 
for destroying the saints, 360 — Popes chastise kings and emperors ; bull 
against Queen Elizabeth, 362 — Pastorini's luminous description of the 
bloody woman and her beast, note, 363 — Thanksgivings to God for 
Protestant ascendancy, 365 — The bloody Rhemish notes, &c., 366 — 
Protestants undone when priests get power, 367 — Mr. D. O'Connell's 
vast inconsistency, 367 — The papal creed the dire parent of these evil 
notes and butcheries, 368 — No informed pope or priest ever believed this 
wicked creed, 369 — Mark l?)th. Number of his name, 666, is found in 
Aaruvoc, " Latin," compared with Vitalianus's Latin service in 666 — 
369, 315 — Mark I6th. False god, antichrist; how the pope is made a 
god, and shows himself such, 373 — He exalts himself above and oppo- 
seth himself to God, 374— He blasphemes God and his tabernacle, 377 — 
He is the antichrist, 378— Mark 17th. Duration, antichrist's rise, pro- 
gress, and end, 378 — Conclusion, 383. 



CONTENTS. 



APPENDIX. 



Interesting remarks ; papal baptism, &c., considered, 386 — That of 
bells, 388 — The oaths on popes, bishops, priests, papal kings, and on 
Ribbonmen, to uphold the papacy and destroy Protestants, 388, 389— 
False prophets, antichrists, 393 — Protestant rule of faith infallible, 393 — 
No informed man can be a priest, 393 — The church of Rome can never 
be reformed, 393. 

Glossart, 395. 



PEEFACE 



FIRST AMERICAN EDITION 



An American by birth, a Protestant by choice, ex- 
perience, and profession, I cannot but view with feel- 
ings of the liveliest concern every question involving 
the interests of either our beloved country, or the church 
of God. Popery I regard as a question of this class, 
as having a natural and necessary tendency to mar 
the beauty of Christianity, regarded either as a sys- 
tem of morals, or as a revelation of religious truth. 

Where is the country on the map of this wide 
world ever subjected to its sway, that may not justly 
number the influence of popery on its civil and 
social aflairs as one of its heaviest calamities, and 
indeed as the source of most of its misfortunes. 

Popery is truly " semper eadem," always the same 
evil thing, dishonouring God and destroying men 
whenever it has the ascendency, and may be fitly 
compared to those dreadful clouds that at once shut 

11 



12 AMERICAN PREFACE. 

out the light of heaven and blight the prospects of 
earth, smiting the lofty oak and mountain ash with 
fire, and the humbler vegetation with mildew and 
rust. 

Whether, as some wise and good men fear, in the 
inscrutable counsels of Heaven popery is again to 
have the ascendency, or otherwise, we shall not ven- 
ture to predict. One thing, however, is certain, that 
they ardently wish it, — that they seek it, — that they 
will not be satisfied without it, — that they will use 
every means to obtain it, — and that, if they succeed, 
they will act over again the foulest deeds of deception 
and death that pollute the annals of time gone by. 

Before we reconcile ourselves to slumber while 
our enemies are busily engaged in sowing tares, let 
us lay this one thing to heart, that as there is no 
greater earthly blessing that we can transmit to our 
children than their civil and reUgious privileges, so 
there is no event under heaven that would more in 
fallibly deprive them of both than the ascendency 
of Romanism. 

Two things are to be attended to, if we would pre 
vent that ascendency which has ever been the death- 
knell of civil and religious freedom; let the word 
of God have free course, let it be freely circulated 
among them, and let persons of Protestant pretensions 
read fair and manly expositions of the dogmas of Ro- 
manism. Let them see the man of sin unmasked, 
and flee from his hideousness. 



AMERICAN PREFACE. , 13 

The work now before the reader is one of life and 
energy, and animated by the spirit of an ardent Chris- 
tian and a faithful preacher; it glows with all the 
attributes of truth. The publisher, therefore, confi- 
dently commends it to the favour and patronage of all 
who prefer old Christianity to papal novelties, per- 
suaded that such as receive its doctrines and spirit 
will be both wiser and better Christians. 

M. SORIN. 



ADDRESS. 



Since all sincere Roman Catholics, and Protestants, 
believe that our Lord Jesus Christ taught the true re- 
ligion wholly, and agree that his apostles taught it as 
perfectly as did He, and wrote the doctrine as accu- 
rately, though not so often as they taught it, (for this 
would be idle tautology,) and as both believe the New 
Testament is of divine inspiration, so must they be- 
lieve that it hath the whole doctrine which Christ first 
taught. And in this they are the more confirmed, 
when, after all that has been said, no doctrine can be 
found in the one version, that is not, (self-contradic- 
tions avoided,) found in the other also. To deny 
therefore that Christ's whole doctrine was thus di- 
vinely written, or that it is not in the New Testament, 
they must agree, involves instant infidelity, as being 
a daring denial of the apostles' integrity and divine 
inspiration. 

Shall it not then follow, first, that if this religion, 
this gospel thus taught by our Saviour, be the sure 
way to eternal glory, it must be God's best gift to 
man, and that whoever would keep it from man, is 
man's worst foe, and Christ's opponent, i. e. an anti- 
christ? 2d. That whereas Christ and his apostles 
taught it to the multitudes unrestrictedly, and that as 
none but a devil or wicked man could censure this, so 

15 



16 ADDRESS. 

must he who now blames this example, be either ig- 
norant or insane, or a wicked man and of the devil ; 
3d. That as this way of Christ is the sure and narrow 
way to heaven, so must that doctrine that opposes it 
be the certain broad road to hell ; lastly, that as they 
who take the same road, must assuredly meet in the 
same town it leads to, so must they who carefully 
cleave to the gospel, be exactly such Christians as 
Christ himself taught, be one in faith and love to God 
and mankind, and must undoubtedly meet in heaven. 
This is my belief; and must, I judge, be that of every 
sincere Christian, of every informed^ honest man. 

The Author. 



PREFACE. 



Shall all but man look out, with ardent eye, 
For that great day which was ordained for man ! 
Great day of dread, decision, and despair, 
At thought of thee, each sublunary wish 
Lets go its eager grasp, drops the world. 
And catches at each reed of hope in heaven. 
At thought of thee ! and art thou absent, then 1 

Ah, no ! I see, I feel it : 

I see the Judge enthroned, the flaming guard. 

The volume opened, opened every heart, 

A sunbeam pointing out each secret thought ; 

No patron, intercessor none; now past 

The sweet, the clement, the mediatorial hour : 

For guilt no plea, to pain no pause, no bound ; 

Inexorable all, and all extreme I Young. 



Salvation will ever be a paramount consideration 
with every man who is conscious that he is shortly to 
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive 
according to the deeds done in his body. To find the 
road to salvation, then, that he may walk therein and 
escape eternal misery, will consequently claim his first 
attention. That ^'narrow way^^ laid down by our 
Saviour in the Scriptures, Protestants are taught to 
believe to be the only safe way; but Mr. Thayer hav- 
ing judged otherwise, has written a book, to call them 
into what he has considered the right way.* When 

• The following is the challenge contained in his " Catholic Contro- 
versy :" — 

" Mr. Thayer, Catholic priest, will undertake to answer the objections 
any gentlemen would wish to make, either publicly or privately, to the 
doctrine he preaches; and promises, if any one can convince him he is 
2* 17 



18 PREFACE. 

the gauntlet is thus thrown down, to examine the 
subject maturely cannot by any candid man be 
deemed improper. 

Mr. Thayer has, we see, proposed to open the eyei- 
of Protestants ; and we, so far from being displeased, 
ought to be thankful to him. As we profess to follow 
the light wherever it appears, we should therefore 
esteem the man, whosoever he may be, that shall dis- 
cover to us the truth of God, as our friend, the beloved 
of God, and the enemy of the prince of darkness. Matt. 
V. 19. Phil. i. 18. To hate or oppose any such per- 
son because not of our party, would betray the most 
stupid ignorance and bigotry; seeing Christ our Lord, 
to whose example and instruction all should ever 
attend, reproved his apostles for having, in their mis- 
taken zeal, prevented a man from doing good — from 
casting out devils in his name, because he followed 
not with them ; saying, with awful threatenings, to 
discourage all such conduct forever, ^^ Forbid him not, 
for he, that is not against us, is on our part J^ Mark 
ix. 39, 42. But, on the other hand, it must not be ex- 
pected that we can suffer ourselves to be led astray — 
to receive a new gospel from even an apostle, or an 
angel from heaven. If the doctrines which this gen- 
tleman has proposed to support can be proved false, 

in error, he will publicly and solemnly abjure it, and recant his present 
belief, as he has done the Protestant religion, in which he was educated. 
I stand forth in defence of the genuine Popery, as taught in the coun- 
cils, catechisms, and schools of the Catholic church ; I not only offer this 
public disputation, but I even conjure the ministers, if they have real 
Jove for souls, to accept it, that the people's eyes, who are kept in dark- 
ness, may be opened to the light. I also desire them to come armed 
with all the arguments which Tillotson, and other champions of Pro- 
testancy, ever used in its behalf. 

"JOHN THAYER, Catholic Missionary." 

N. B. It is a plan, a ruse, adopted by the papal writers, to assume 
the highest possible tone of confidence and sincerity with regard to the 
parity of their faith, and uprightness of their motives before God, when 
no informed priest can be ignorant that his faith is flatly opposed to 
Christ ! See for a specimen of this practice. Dr. Milner's preface to " Entl 
of Controversy," 



PREFACE. 19 

no man can blame us, or consider we treat him or his 
friends ill, when, in obedience to God, we reject them. 

The old religion, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, is 
a religion of truth, goodness, peace, and love to God 
and all mankind. This religion, older than the foun- 
dations of the earth, dwelt in the bosom of Deity, and 
from thence has issued forth to our lower world, to 
illumine and purify man, and, having enriched him 
with its unsearchable riches and glory, and filled the 
earth with its splendours and felicity, to return with 
him to his God, from whom it came, and place him, 
amidst the acclamations of the heavenly hosts, as an 
heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ, safe, and 
forever, in that inheritance that is incorruptible and 
undefiled, and which fadeth not away. 

That our Lord Jesus Christ was the purest and 
wisest teacher that ever appeared among men, and 
that to establish this religion on earth, and therewith 
bless all the families thereof, and by his death atone 
for their transgressions, and thus prepare and finally 
receive them to glory, was the chief end, to accomplish 
which he condescended to visit our world, is agreed 
on by all — at least by all Christians. That the apos- 
tles, the blessed virgin, and the other disciples who 
then lived, learned this holy religion of him, and en- 
joyed it with him ; that he taught it so fully and so 
completely that it never can be amended ; and that, 
therefore, to add to it or take away from it, must 
argue great arrogance and impiety ; that, consequently, 
this most blessed religion is the only safe and blissful 
way for all Christians to everlasting life ; and that 
none who reject it, being fairly laid before them, can 
be happy here or hereafter, is likewise admitted. 

This holy treasure, this rehgion of God, notwith- 
standing the folly and madness of corrupt men, and 
the malice of Satan, who would banish it from the 
earth, is, through the providence and goodness of God, 
still preserved among men, and stands on record m 
that book called the Bible, the New Testament espe- 



20 PREFACE. 

cially. And however great a diversity of opinion 
may have prevailed among Christians, and unhappily 
divided and distracted them, so that most dreadful 
and shameful contentions have, age after age, been 
found amongst them, yet, when the copy of the Bible, 
which each party has, is brought forward from the 
different parts of the earth and compared, their agree- 
ment, with so very little comparative difference, con- 
sidering the many furious contentions of their owners; 
the lapse of time since the days of Moses to the end 
of the Jewish economy, and from the days of the 
apostles, when the New Testament was first written, 
to this day; the various translations they have under- 
gone ; and the many thousand times they have been 
copied by so many different hands, especially before 
the happy invention of printing, is most admirable, if 
not a miracle, and wonderfully displays the divine 
superintendence and mercy of the Lord to his crea- 
tures, however unworthy, in thus preserving to them 
this invaluable record. The Bible, then, being the 
only safe record to be relied on, the copies of which, 
in the hands of the different parties, so wonderfully 
agree, and in which this rehgion is found, is the book 
all men should, therefore, love and cleave to. 

"The gospels," saith Pope Ganganelli, vol. i. let. 40, 
" contain the religion of Christ, and are so plain, that 
the meanest capacity can comprehend them." Saith 
Dr. Manning, in his Moral Entertainments, "The 
answer of Christ to the young man, who wished to 
know from him the way of salvation, saying, * How 
readest thou?' teacheth us, that if we will be rightly 
instructed in the ways of salvation, we must go to the 
divinely inspired writings. The gospel is that which 
we must follow ; by it we must be judged, and by it 
stand or fall in that day; and happy is he that shall 
be found able to meet that awful question of the great 
Judge, * How readest thou ?' " If this, therefore, be 
the Book to which all Christians should adhere, no 



PREFACE. 21 

Other book or man should be allowed to contradict it, 
or to add to it or detract from it. For if any book, 
purporting to teach religion, contradict it, it is plain 
the Bible or that book must be rejected. If it be only 
in agreement with the Bible, it adds nothing to it, 
though it may explain ; but if it add or diminish, the 
divine anathema is immediately incurred. Hence, any 
doctrines not found in, or contrary to the New Testa- 
ment, are not from Christ, and cannot be necessary to 
any man's salvation, but should be instantly rejected 
as novelties ; as saith St. Paul, " Though we or an 
angel from heaven, (or any other man to the end of 
time,) preach any other gospel to you, let him be ac- 
cursed." Gal. i. 8. Now, if the twelve apostles, or an 
angel from heaven, would, in this case, be had ac- 
cursed, should not every other man tremble exceed- 
ingly, and carefully look to himself, lest he teach any 
new doctrine ? 

Each man who loves his own soul, his neighbour, 
and, above all, his God, ought, nay, is commanded, to 
contend, yet in love and humility, for this faith or 
religion once delivered to the saints. Therefore, when 
Mr. Thayer's Controversy appeared, and was found 
to contain several new, i. e. unscriptural, and conse- 
quently dangerous doctrines, I wrote to him immedi- 
ately, and made inquiries concerning them, which 
shall be found in the following sheets. However, not- 
withstanding his many invitations and promises, " that 
he would answer any gentleman, either personally or 
by letter, any questions on these subjects he proposed 
to defend," he returned me, after waiting for six months, 
no answer. I wondered at this, and wrote to him 
again most pressingly for his promised answer, but in 
vain ; my questions he would not touch, but sent me 
a few lines directing me to read certain Roman Catho- 
lic books; books in which, however, no answers to my 
questions could be found; and advising me, if I would 
be saved, to enter into the Roman Catholic church as 



22 PREFACE. 

he had done. As I now saw his challenge was mere 
gasconade, my hopes of any answer were at an end. 
And as I saw no other pen raised against him, and con- 
sidered the danger many might be exposed to from such 
a specious but fallacious challenge, strange doctrines, 
and other like crafty proceedings, I found myself, in 
some sense, in conscience bound, and strongly moved 
to publish my inquiries to him : and thus, though a 
weak instrument in the hand of that God who maketh 
weak things to confound things that are mighty, try 
to preserve the unsuspecting and weak from seduction. 

That many able and learned works have been writ- 
ten on these subjects, by Protestants — works which the 
author is of opinion have never been, nor ever can be 
fairly answered — is most true. But answers which con- 
sist of railing, witticisms, evasions, or mere sophistry, 
such as have been returned to those Protestants, can- 
not be deemed answers, except by the ignorant or 
prejudiced; yet, such in general have been those given 
them. I shall, for the reader's satisfaction, give him, 
out of many, one instance. 

The amiable, learned, and accomplished Dr. Atter- 
bury, whose fame now needs no eulogy from me, 
writing in defence of his friend Archbishop Tillotson, 
in his Vindication of him against N. Cressy, a Roman 
Catholic writer, above one hundred years ago, thus 
speaks in page 13 : "If any mere human author ever 
wrote with strength of argument and demonstration, 
as well as accurateness of style and strength of ex- 
pression, it was certainly the late Archbishop of Can- 
terbury. Yet N. Cressy, the author of the ' Modest 
Account,' represents him *As without sound sense or 
solid argument, and that (his friend) Mr. Serjeant was 
much superior to the ingenious Tillotson ;' in answer 
to which, I shall refer the reader to the preface of the 
first volume of the archbishop's Sermons, where he 
will find a full and satisfactory account of the contro- 
versy between them, and plainly discover how little 



PREFACE. 23 

N. Cressy is to be depended on for his character of 
men, as well as his judgment of controversies in reli 
gion, and how trifling an author Mr. Serjeant is. 
N. Cressy pretends that the archbishop has been re 
futed by Scripture, reason, and the authority of the 
fathers; but when we read the arguments he is pleased 
to afford us in his book, the reader will judge on how 
sandy a foundation he has built." Mr. Cressy breaks 
out thus : 

" Dr. Tillotson has obliged us with a treatise written 
on purpose, which he calls a Discourse against Tran- 
substantiation. In this piece I meet with as copious 
a collection of scurrility, injurious language, of notori- 
ous and manifold impositions, and so much disinge- 
nuity in citing of authors and managing their authori- 
ties, as I believe was ever possible for any man who 
had ever so little esteem for his credit, to bring within 
so narrow a compass." 

" This," says Dr. Atterbury, "is so heavy a charge, 
and of so venomous a nature, and levelled against a 
person of such dignity and worth, that if N. Cressy 
cannot make plain proof of it, he must pass among 
all men of common honesty and sense for a barefaced 
calumniator." And p. 91, " I had like to have forgot- 
ten the challenge which this champion of the Roman 
cause makes to all his adversaries, * That if any one 
will bring but one single argument, in mood and 
figure, to prove that transubstantiation doth contradict 
either sense or reason, I sincerely promise 1 will be 
of his opinion the very next moment. N. Cressy.' " — 
Saith Dr. Atterbury, " This is so light and boyish, that 
I shall only make this reply to it. That when he has 
returned a serious or solid answer to any one para- 
graph of the archbishop^s treatise, or made good 
one leaf he has written, his challenge shall be ac- 
cepted." 

All I shall say here, is, while men take upon them 
selves to defend doctrines not taught by God, mere 



24 PREFACE. 

human inventions, I never can expect any other sort 
of answer from them. 

Now, although many such Protestant works have 
been written, and written to purpose, they are in gene- 
ral so voluminous and so learned, that few compara- 
tively can procure or comprehend them ; therefore, I 
was, and still am of opinion, something short, plain, 
and cheap was wanted, that the less affluent especially, 
and others who have not much time to spare, might 
with facility so far comprehend these subjects as to be 
preserved from delusion on the one hand, and, on the 
other, be taught to appreciate the Bible, and be led 
thereby, through the grace of God in Christ Jesus, to 
certain salvation. Hence, however inadequate to such 
an undertaking, and notwithstanding the very little 
time I could spare, I have ventured to take up my 
pen, and cast my small mite into God's treasury. If 
any man has hitherto been preserved or shall be pre- 
served, ar be stirred up thereby, to God be the sole 
glory, who alone can work in man to will and to do 
of his good pleasure. 

My first edition, containing but forty or fifty pages, 
was written in haste, and printed in 1S12. My second 
edition, containing upwards of one hundred and forty 
pages, was printed in Limerick,* (where Mr. Thayer 

• ADVERTISEMENT. 
"Just published, and now ready for delivery, the Inquiries of Mr. 
Ouseley, Irish Missionary, addressed t(^ the 'Rev. John Thayer, Roman 
Catholic Missionary, in consequence of his public challenge, in his 
• Catholic Controruersy' to all Protestants, ministers especially. In 
this work, the following interesting subjects, viz. Extreme Unction, In- 
fallibility of the Church of Rome, Supremacy of the Pope, Purgatory, 
Indulgences, Transubstantiation, Sacri£ce of the Mass, Divine Worship 
of the Host, &c. &c., are fully entered into and discussed ; and are 
proved by Scripture, and by solid arguments, never to have been taught 
by Christ or his apostles ; and that this is fact, is for the most part con- 
fessed by many eminent Roman Catholic divines, by the council of 
Trent itself, and by Popes Gelasius in the fifth century, Gregory in the 
sixth century, and by ethers, as will appear in this work," &c. Lime- 
rick, Jan. 28th, 1814, 



PREFACE. 25 

then lived,) in 1813, and was advertised in the public 
papers there, in 1814. 

The following post, a little tract, about eighteen or 
twenty pages, signed " Layman," was advertised as 
an answer to mine of 1812, to Mr. Thayer, ten lines 
only of which, the author, having garbled, pretended 
to answer; at the same time refusing any reply to my 
doctrinal questions, except a torrent of the most un- 
qualified scurrility. I instantly prepared a reply to 
Mr. Thayer, believing him to be the author of it, ad- 
vertised It, and put it to press ; but having removed 
to Ulster, and Mr. Thayer having died shortly after, 
I deemed it unnecessary, and withdrew it. I got a 
third edition printed in 1814, which I enlarged, and 
put similar advertisements in the Belfast, the Newry^ 
and the Derry papers, &c., proposing therehi, if any 
one would give a fair answer to my work, I would 
turn to the pope's church ; but no answer has to this 
day appeared ! 

Another edition of this little work was called for, 
which I prepared and published, with considerable 
additions, in 1821. This, in the hand of God, has 
since then been made a blessing to many of my coun- 
trymen, who were entangled in the errors it combats. 
A fifth edition is now earnestly sought. I pray God 
to assist me in improving it, to his own glory, and for 
the good of many. 

All candid men of every denomination of Christians, 
seeing mankind so slow to virtue and so prone to vice, 
will be ready to acknowledge, that, because of this 
proneness to evil, and the entire purity of the doctrines 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, while few are found to fol- 
low him, multitudes follow with great avidity, either 
the mere forms of religion, regardless of its power ; 
'oi, which is still worse, the corrupt inventions of men, 
well called superstition?, because these, being agreeable 
to corrupt nature, crosd not the depraved dispositions 
of the heart. And it is notorious, that not a few of the 

3 



26 PREFACE. 

very teachers of religion are found in tlie same trul 
deplorable state. The Roman Catholic teachers do 
acknowledge, " that none shall enter heaven but pure 
and holy persons, who, possessing the Spirit of God 
thereby keep his holy commandments, and die in 
the state of grace." This is the language of their 
best writers and catechisms. They also declare, 
"That all who are found in any mortal sin are 
certainly children of the devil ; and that when 
these die, they go, not even into purgatory, but 
into the bottomless pit with the devil and his an- 
gels : for only souls in a state of grace, not fully 
purged from all their sins, go to purgatory to be 
purged," as they tell ns. Now when we look at 
their tables of mortal sin, the catalogue is great 
indeed. They count " seven capital sins ; six against 
the Holy Ghost ; ten against the ten commandments ; 
four crying sins ; sins against the baptismal and eu- 
charistical covenants ; and against their neighbour, by 
not striving to reclaim him; all the catalogues of sins in 
the New Testament and in the Old. All these are mor- 
tal sins, and damning to the soul." Where then is the 
man freed from mortal sin ? Can one out of one thou- 
sand be found ? How" many of the clergy themselves 
are free ? Where is that righteous man who lives in 
a state of grace, and proves it by keeping, not the vain 
commandments of men, but the holy commandments 
of his God, to be found ? Alas ! how few are they, 
and how hard to meet with them ! What then is to 
become of them, or of what use is it to amuse them 
with a name? The priests themselves admit, the 
church of Christ on earth or in heaven can have no- 
thing to do with the wicked — with those in mortal 
sin ! Now, should all those, both clergy and people, 
on whom mortal sin can be found, be drawn out of 
their churches and parishes, and be separated from 
the righteous, as shall be done by the Judge of all in 
that last great day, who would be left behind ? Would 



PREFACE. 27 

one out of one thousand ? Is this statement exagge- 
rated ? Not one of them will say it is ; for their own 
best writers make the same lamentation over their 
awful state ; and daily observation but too much con- 
firms it. Should not the friends of perishing humanity 
then labour to awake them from their dreadful slum- 
ber ? Should not the clergy look about them for their 
own and their people's eternal safety? and, instead of 
stickling for doubtful, nay, self-contradictory doctrines, 
which, from their effects, it is plain, do the people no 
good ; should they not rather lead them to the pure 
fountain, the doctrines of Christ, which save the soul, 
and in which all are agreed ? For such is the power 
of sin, it cannot be dethroned in any man by any hu- 
man inventions, but by the doctrine and spirit of Christ 
only. "Ye have obeyed," saith St. Paul, "from the 
heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you ; being 
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of 
righteousness, of God, ye have your fruit unto holi- 
ness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages ot 
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. viii. 18, 22, 23. May 
God help us to run to this only relief. 

The Protestant clergy also freely admit, that the 
mere forms of even the religion of God, however dili- 
gently attended to, if rested in, will be of no avail to 
the soul's salvation. For, that there can be no salva- 
tion without also a true and deep repentance towards 
God, whereby sin is loathed and forsaken and the soul 
transformed, and a divine faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which justifies freely and purges the conscience 
from guilt, is the doctrine they hold and maintain. So 
saith Bishop Burnet, on the ilth Article, "It is then 
only we are freed from wrath, when we are Justijied 
and have peace Avith God." That there must be ob- 
tained by this faith, " an inward spiritual grace, to be 
a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness;" 
that until this 7iew birth be obtained, or " we be born 



28 PREFACE. 

again," we are children of wrath and hell.* That by 
this special grace alone, we are enabled to perform 
our duty to God and our neighbour, is stated excel- 
lently well in the Church Catechism ; as is our duty 
to God and man, thus : " My duty to my God, is to 
believe in him, to fear him, to love him with all my 
heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my 
strength ; to worship him, to give him thanks, to put 
my whole trust in him, to honour his holy name and 
his word, and to serve him truly all the days of my 
life. Duty to my neighbour : To love him as myself, 
and to do unto all men as I would they should do 
unto me ; to love, honour, and succour my father and 
mother ; to honour and obey the king, and all in au- 
thority under him ; to keep my body in temperance 
and chastity ; to keep my hands from picking and 
stealing, my tongue from evil speaking, lying, or slan- 
dering ; not to covet or desire other men's goods, but 
to learn and labour truly to get my own living, and be 
content in that state of life unto which it may please 
God to call me;" and finally, after having thus "lived 
a pure and holy life, to come to God's eternal joy.'^ 
This lovely religion, which every one may readily 
see is that which Jesus Christ our Lord taught, is the 
religion of Churchmen, and of all Protestants of all 
ranks and orders, generally ; to which if they would 
attend, as they are bound to do, has there ever been, 
or could there be now, a more blessed excellent peo- 
ple of God on the face of the earth ? Nothing but the 
blindest prejudice or ignorance will deny this. But, 
alas ! how thinly scattered are they who ornament 
this holy doctrine of God their Saviour. 

Hov/ is it that men are thus led astray, some resting 
in mere forms of religion, and others in these vain and 
useless doctrines and commandments of men, fitly 
called superstitions, and which this httle work is 

* See the 9th Article of the Church of England. 



PEEPACE. 29 

intended to combat ? The answer to this important 
question is given by St. Paul, Rom. viii. 7, 8 : " The 
carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject 
to his law, neither indeed can be ; so then, they that 
are in the flesh (under the power of this carnal 
mind) cannot please God.'^ It is because of this, 
therefore, God's pure doctrine is so neglected by- 
teachers and people ; and forms, or the foolish inven- 
tions of men, are so sought after. The conclusion 
then is plain ; men must rise up against this carnal 
mind, and deny themselves; and believe in and 
call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to destroy this chief 
work of the devil, or otherwise they must ever be 
averse to pure religion, love formality, or superstition, 
and sin, and perish everlastingly. 

But, as God is our common Father, and has com- 
manded us to be holy ; and as our Redeemer, Jesus 
Christ, who is to judge us in that last day, and 
who is the sole author of eternal salvation to those 
who obey him, has commanded all his disciples 
to love one another; otherwise, no man can be his 
disciple ; in searching for truth, in " contending for 
that faith once delivered to the saints," and which 
we are commanded to do ; we must be careful not 
to depart, on any pretence, from the principles of 
truth and charity, as this would be a fatal error, 
ending in our certain ruin. Therefore, as on the one 
hand, he that " contends for the faith once delivered 
to the saints," and enters into discussions with his 
fellow-mortal and brother, in order to rectify his real 
or supposed errors, and lead him into the paths of 
truth and salvation, ought to guard against every 
appearance of acrimony, ill nature, or contempt be 
cause of his opinions, and to deal with him as in the 
presence of Christ, and in his spirit, with gentleness, 
candour, and love, that thus he may win his brother; 
so, on the other hand, he that has a sincere love for 
the truth of God, in preference to all systems, old or 
3* 



30 PHEFACi:. 

new, and a real djsire to save his own soul and thf 
souls of his neignDours, ought ever to evince it, by 
kindly, affectionately, and. dispassionately examining 
the arguments laid before him, and replying with 
openness and love, not as to. an enemy, but to a dear 
friend. In this way alone should discussions of this 
nature be conducted. God and man would then be 
pleased, and the results would be felicitous and glo- 
rious. 

If any doctrines be proved by fair argument to ter- 
minate, necessarily, in infidelity and irreligion, they 
cannot be from God, and are therefore pernicious; 
but if the doctrines herein discussed are proved thus 
to terminate, they ought to be quickly dismissed for- 
ever. 

For to obey men in matters of religion, is mere su- 
perstition and vain worship, as our Saviour tells us, 
Mark vii. 7 — 9. God commands us, " To prove all 
things, and hold fast that which is good.^' 1 Thess. 
V. 21. And the apostle gives the Galatians commission, 
*' To try themselves and their doctrine, and to ana- 
thematize any, in case of varying from the gospel. ^^ 
Gal. i. 8, 9. And St. John says, '^Believe not every 
spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.'' 
1 John iv. I. And our Lord declares, "If the blind 
lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.'' Matt. 
XV. 14. Now, if a man will not obey God, and thus 
examine, when he hath opportunity, and may do so, 
how can he be saved? But how can he try or 
prove his faith, or know his religion, whether it be 
from heaven or the invention of men, if, in obedience 
to man, who may perhaps have an interest in keeping 
him in ignorance, he neglect to search the Scriptures, 
the true record of God, where that religion which is 
from heaven may be found ? To say the Scriptures 
ought not to be read or searched, except with notes 
to explain them, is plainly to accuse Christ and his 
apostles of misleading the people; for, there were 



PREFACE. 31 

none of these notes, now among us, then to be found ; 
nay, it is to charge Abraham in heaven, too ; for 
these all commanded to read Moses and the prophets, 
and the other Scriptures also ; and carefully to guard 
against the glosses of the Pharisees. Let man then 
be silent, God obeyed, and the Bible be searched, 
with humility, faith, and prayer. 

Seeing that the church of Rome claims infalli- 
bility, as her strong foundation; to be the "only 
church of God, out of which there is no salvation ; 
and the mistress of all churches; and that ail other 
churches are heretical and schismatical, and are so 
many schools of Satan ;'^ if, in the course of these 
discussions, she be proved guilty of many gross 
errors, nay, if in even one article only of her faith, 
she be convicted, all her lofty claims are, with every 
informed mind, at once destroyed, her foundation 
taken away, and straightway she tumbles to the 
ground; a misled world is disabused, the cause of 
truth, which she had for many ages violated, is vindi- 
cated, and all those venerable churches she had pro- 
scribed as schools of Satan, and so long laboured to 
render execrable to all men, her own people espe- 
cially, are delivered from her calumnies ; and, being 
found in agreement with holy writ, are vindicated 
as true churches of Christ. And however they may 
happen to differ in minor matters — matters of disci- 
pline or opinion — this no more prevents them from 
belonging to Christ and being of his holy church, 
and of that one faith which he delivered to the 
apostles and the other saints, than the many orders 
of friars, nuns, &c., .widely as they differ in opi- 
nions and discipline, are thereby prevented from 
belonging tc the pope and to the same papal creed 
and church. 

Heai these few arguments. 1st. The above Scrip- 
tures teach, that God's holy will is, that we must not 
trust either men or angels, but the gospel only; and 



32 PREFACE. 

that if on any account whatever we neglect to searcli 
and try, and earnestly contend for that faith which 
Christ delivered to the saints, or fall far short of it, 
we shall be reprobates. But it is most plain, that 
he who would forbid or discourage such search, is of 
a mind and will contrary to Christ's, and would, if 
attended to, necessarily make men reprobates. Now, 
that will that is contrary to Christ's, must be repro- 
bate, and the mind of. antichrist and Satan. Hence, 
that church or pastor which would discourage, for- 
bid, or punish men, for making such diligent search 
for the faith, must clearly be of antichrist and of 
Satan. 

Arg. 2. When a body of men make oath, that a 
matter is thus and thus, and yet own they cannot be 
sure it is so, are they not forsworn ? But the papal 
clergy are sworn on the Gospels, " that after consecra- 
tion, no bread or wine remains in the eucharist, but 
Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity ;" yet they 
openly confess in their very Missal, (see its Kubrick,) 
"that there are many cases," not possible to be 
known, "in which the consecration fails, and there 
is no sacrament." Hence, they are sworn to say 
things are thus and thus, (this applies to all their 
sacraments,) and are forced to own, they cannot 
know if they be so or not ! How then, or when are 
they to be believed ? What therefore is the conclu- 
sion ? This is a serious question. 

Arg. 3. Should a king resolve to punish such as 
dare add to or take from his laws ; and yet, if some 
add new laws, and swear to punish those who dare 
reject them, must not he or they fall ? Now, Christ 
has pledged himself to destroy, in eternal fire, such 
as shall add to or take from his gospel. Rev. xxii. 18. 
Gal. i. 8. Yet, the papal church has added many 
new articles of faith, (see the Trent creed,) and is 
sworn on the Gospels to punish, as heretics, such as 
refuse them. Hence, as Christ cannot be conquered. 



PREFACE. 33 

she must either repent and forsake her new doctrines, 
or be destroyed. Rev. xviii. 4 — S. 

Should some minor inaccuracies occur in any part 
of this work, which (because of the author's frequent 
interruptions and absence from the press, on account 
of his missionary labours) is not improbable, the 
reader is requested kindly to correct them with his 
pen. And if some repetitions of some singular 
papal doctrines, made, the more deeply to impress 
them on the reader, be observed, indulgence in this 
is claimed. 

Much as the author — weary of beholding his Sa- 
viour's holy religion disfigured, the vile inventions of 
men set up, and the world misled — wished to give his 
fellow-men his views on the subjects herein discussed, 
he could not, from the nature of his avocation, pos- 
sibly have accomplished this, in even its present form, 
had he not been, at two or three periods, confined by 
aifliction. 

Having addressed the former editions to Mr. 
Thayer — the two first in his lifetime — although much 
new matter has been added, the same address has 
been retained; for, as his numerous brethren who 
hold his tenets, remain, so are they at liberty, if they 
shall judge any thing incorrect, to reply, if they wish. 

When all are agreed, that the only sure way of 
salvation for men is Christianity, or the religion 
taught by our Redeemer, preached by his apostles, 
and also written by them in the gospel, or New Tes- 
tament, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, with 
as infallible certainty and accuracy as they taught 
it; (which to deny, is to overthrow the gospel and 
Christianity altogether ;) I say, when all sensible Ro- 
manists believe this, as much as do Protestants; 
Avhen the versions of the New Testament of both, 
are, in substance and doctrine, in such close agree- 
ment, and when both confess that any doctrines 
found at variance with that of this sacred book, is 



34 PREFACE. 

accursed, and is indeed the broad road to destruction, 
in which neither wish to walk, why then should 
either of them suffer themselves, on any pretence or 
influence whatever, to receive from men or angels 
any doctrines opposed to the gospel of God their Sa- 
viour? Another consideration that deserves notice, 
is, whereas the doctrine of both their Testaments is 
one and the same, did both cleave to these blessed 
books, solely and sincerely, with faith and prayer, 
how could they possibly have any essential difference 
of religion, or avoid being entirely such Christians as 
were those taught by Christ himself and his apostles ? 
But if any essential difference exist in their religion, 
must it not be clearly on this account, that the one 
party or the other have been so far cheated and 
deluded as \o have received some accursed doctrines, 
at variance with the gospel of truth ? This must be 
the fact, the certain fact; for the differences of all 
who, avoiding self-contradictions, cleave to the gospel 
solely, will, on close inspection, be found trifling, and 
in reality to amount to nothing. What have these 
parties now to do, but simply and promptly to exa- 
mine if they have got any doctrines at variance with 
the gospel, and instantly cast them away? Nor 
must they listen to apostle or angel who would pre- 
vent them, on pretence of their incompetency to ex- 
amine, or other such ground; for so is the divine 
command. Gal. i. 8, 9. 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 1 John v. 9. 
The following pages will quickly enable them to 
make the discovery with all facility, that Christ never 
taught the proper sacrifice of the mass, masses for 
the dead, Latin service, half-communion, purga tori/, 
invocation of angels, <^'C., supremacy, jubilees, in- 
dulgences, private confessions, infallibility, adora- 
tion of the eucharist, image worship, celibacy of all 
clergy, extreme unction, and the like. If these, then, 
are human figments to exalt the pope and his clergy, 
and debase mankind, and must lead to ruin ; if to 



PREFACE. 35 

refuse to quit them is clearly to refuse being saved ; 
and if the rejection of them be the order of God, and 
leads to salvation, who but men bent on their own 
ruin, madmen, can longer persist in them? If the 
Roman clergy cannot prove Christ taught these things, 
they cannot deny they are impieties, and they should 
quit them, or the people should bid them farewell 
forever. 

Now, if the doctrines which I in this little work 
combat, be found unscriptural — be opposed to Christ 
and his gospel, and therefore to salvation ; in a word, 
be clearly antichristian, and that any soul be thereby 
warned, and, in the hand of God, saved from error 
and death eternal, to him be all the glory. 

The Auteor. 



THE 

TRENT CREED UNDER POPE PIUS IV. 

TO BELIEVE AND OBEY WHICH, THE PAPAL CLERGY ARE 
BOUND BY OATH ON THE GOSPELS. 



Bulla, S. D. N. D. Pii, divina The bull of Pius IV. by divine 
providentia Papse IV. — Super for- providence, Pope, relative to the 
ma juramenti professionis fidei. form of oath of the profession 

of the faith. 
PiusEpiscopus,servus servorum Pius, Bishop, the servant of the 
Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam. servants of God, for the perpetual 

remembrance of the deed. 

Injunctum nobis Apostolicse servitutis officium, 8fC, — 
*'The office of our apostolical ministry enjoins us promptly 
to execute these decisions of the holy fathers, with which 
the Almighty God has, for the good of his church, inspired 
them, (fee. Whereas, therefore, by the decree of the coun- 
cil of Trent, all pastors, who shall henceforth be placed 
over cathedrals and principal churches and their dependen- 
cies, or who, intrusted with the care of souls, are provided 
for, must be obliged to make public profession of the ortho- 
dox faith, and to promise and swear that they will continue 
obedient to the church of Rome ; we, desirous that all this 
should be diligently attended to by all so intrusted, in 
what department soever, whether in monasteries, convents, 
houses, and such like places, whether called regular, mili- 
tary, or by what name soever, and that the profession of 
the same faith may be uniformly exhibited to all, and one 
only and certain form of it might be made known to all 
men, and published in every nation by those whom, under 
the prescribed penalties, it concerns, do strictly command, 
by our apostolical authority, that the following aforesaid 
profession of faith be solemnly made, according to this 
form only : 

4 37 



38 . THE TRENT CREED. 

Ego, N, Jirma fide credo, ^c. — " I, N, firmly believe 
and profess all and every thing contained in this creed 
which the holy Roman church useth." Then follows the 
Nicene creed. 

"I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. 
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of 
God ; begotten of the Father before all worlds ; God of 
God ; Light of Light ; true God of true God ; begotten, 
not made, being of one substance with the Father ; by 
whom all things were made ; who for us men, and for our 
salvation, came down from heaven", and was incarnate by 
the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man ; 
was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate ; he suffered 
and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according 
to the Scriptures ; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth at 
the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with 
glory to judge the living and the dead ; of whose kingdom 
there shall be no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord 
and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the 
Son, who with the Father and the Son together is w®r- 
shipped and glorified ; who spoke by the prophets ; — and 
one holy, catholic, and apostolic church : I acknowledge 
one baptism for the remission of sins ; and I look for the 
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. 
Amen." 

After this are the twelve new articles of the Trent creed 

"1. ApostoUcas et ecchdasticas traditiones, &c. — Apostolical and 
ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observations and constitutions of 
the same church, I most firmly admit and embrace. 

"2. I also admit the Holy Scriptures, according to that sense which 
holy Mother Church, whose right it is to judge of the true meaning and 
interpretation of the sacred Scriptures, hath held, and doth hold; nor 
will I ever receive and interpret it but according to the unanimous con- 
sent of the holy fathers. 

" 3. I profess likewise that there are seven true and proper sacraments 
of the new law, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, and necessary to 
the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one ; to wit, Baptism, 
Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Oi-ders, 
and Matrimony; and that they confer grace; and that of these, Bap- 
tism, Confirmation, and Orders cannot be repeated without sacrilege. 

" 4. I embrace and receive all and singular those things cor^ceming 
original sin and justification that have been defined and declared by the 
mos^ holy council of Trent. 



THE TRENT CREED. 39 

"5. I likewise profess, that in the mass is offered unto GoJ a true, 
proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead ; and that 
in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly, really, and 
substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of 
our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole 
substance of the bread into his body, and of the whole substance of the 
wine into his blood ; which conversion the Catholic church calls 
transubstantiation. 

" 6. I also confess that under one kind only is taken whole and entire 
Christ and a true sacrament. 

" 7. I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls 
there detained are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful. 

" 8. And, likewise, that the saints reigning with Christ are to be 
worshipped and invocated, and that they offer prayers for us to God, 
and that their relics are to be venerated. 

" 9. I most firmly assert that the images of Christ and of the mother 
of God, ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and re- 
tained, and that due honour and veneration be given them. 

*' 10. I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by Christ 
to his church, and that the use of them is most beneficial to Christians. 

"11. I acknowledge the holy, catholic, and apostolic Roman church 
as the mother and mistress of all churches ; and to the Pope of Rome, 
successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ, 
I promise and swear strict obedience. 

"12. I also firmly receive and profess all other things which, by the 
sacred canons, and general councils, and especially by the most holy 
council of Trent, have been delivered, defined, and declared ; and all 
things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatever, that by the church 
have been condemned, rejected, and anathematized, I likewise condemn, 
reject, and anathematize." 

Hanc veram Catholicam Jidem, extra quam, nemo sal- 
vus esse potest, 4'C. — "This true Catholic faith, without 
which no man can be saved, which of my own accord I 
now profess and truly hold, I the same N. do promise, 
vow, and swear, that the same I will carefully hold and 
confess, entire and inviolate, most constantly, (by God's 
help,) to my latest breath, and that, as far as in me lies, I 
will take care it shall be held, taught, and preached by all 
those that are my subjects, or by them whose care shall in 
my office belong to me. [Sic me Deus adjiivet et hsec 
sancta Evangelia Dei.) So help me God, and these holy 
Gospels of God. 

Nulli ergo omnino hominnm Uceat hanc paginam 
nostrse voluntatis aut mandati infringere vel ausu teme- 
rario contrarie, ^c. " No man whatever must attempt to 
infringe this declaration of our will and commandment, or 



40 THE TRENT CREED. 

rashly dare contradict it; but if any shall presume to do so, 
he shall know that he thereby incurs the indignation of 
Almighty God, and of his apostles SS. Peter and Paul, 
given at Rome, at St. Peter's, a.d. 1564 — and 5th year of 
our pontificate." — Instit. p. 22, 23, 24. 

The Oath on Schoolmasters and Doctors. — Ad hoe 
omnes ii ad quos universitatum, ^-c. *' Moreover all those 
to whom the care, visitation, or reform of universities and 
general studies belong, must take diligent care, that the 
canons and decrees of this holy synod, be received entire 
by these universities ; and that, according to these rules, 
the master, doctors, and other teachers in such universities, 
must teach and interpret those things which belong to the 
Catholic faith ; and that they bind themselves, by a solemn 
oath., in the beginning of each year, to this observance."— 
C. Trent, sess. xxv. cap. 2. 

Thus, is it evident, that the papal clergy are obliged to 
be sworn on the Gospels to three particulars : — 1st, to the 
church of Rome ; 2d, to the pope ; and 3d, to believe and 
propagate her doctrines, and, by the same oaths, to oppose 
every thing contrary thereto — (and so were schoolmasters 
sworn.) This fully accounts for that constant watch they 
keep, and anxiety they evince, lest the people should read 
any doctrine, or hear any preachers but their own, lest they 
should get enlightened and discover the dreadful secret ; 
namely, that this whole creed or faith is a mere human 
fabrication, as pernicious to man as it is to God most 
hateful. How ignorant, how fatally unsuspecting of all 
this craft are the people! and how astonishing, if not 
miraculous, that the gospel of truth has ever broken forth 
from all those dire and ingenious trammels and guards ! 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABOVE. 

Observ. 1. Since no man can believe that the opposite 
of what he knows to be truth is true, and it being confessed 
by all, that the Nicene creed of fifteen hundred years' 
standing, is true ; most conclusive then is it, that no inform- 
ed pope, priest, or other person, ever did, or ever can 
believe, that this Trent creed which they are sworn to 
teach, opposed as it clearly is to the Nicene, is by any 
means divine truth ; for truth can never oppose truth. To 
the most superficial observer must it be plain, that every 



THE TRENT CREJi^D. 41 

article of this last creed is framed to enhance the pope's and 
clergy's power and fill their coffers, and hence that it is 
a soul-destroying system of human fabrication and cor- 
ruption. 

2. The council of Nice, which in 325 framed the Nicene 
creed, pronounces in one of its canons, That any man who 
shall henceforth add any more articles of faith to those 
then specified, is accursed. And Pope Celestine, a. d. 423, 
in his epistle to Nestorius, in defence of that creed, has 
these words, "Who is not judged worthy of an anathema 
that either adds or takes away from it? for, that faith which 
was delivered by the apostles requires neither addition nor 
diminution." But the council of Trent and Pope Pius in 
1564, in the face of all this, add twelve new articles at a 
stroke, nor once blush to pronounce those who shall presume 
to refuse any of them, accursed. And although these coun- 
cils thus necessarily anathematize each other, yet the papal 
doctors are sworn to believe and teach both are infallible ! ! ! 
And while both creeds plainly contradict one another, as 
shall presently most clearly appear, yet they are, never- 
theless, decreed by the infallible council to be one and the 
same true faith ! Bisum teneatis ? 

3. The Nicene, or former part of this creed, declares 
" Christ was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin 
Mary and was made man." But in the 5th article of the 
new part of the same, that is, of the Trent creed, it is 
defined and declared, " that Christ's body and blood are 
really, substantially, and truly made, by consecration, of 
the whole substance of the bread, and of the whole sub- 
stance of the wine." Here, then, are two sorts of Christ s 
from entirely different sources, exhibited in one compound 
creed!!! By one part thereof, the Nicene, "Christ was 
born, crucified, suffered, was buried, rose again, ascended 
into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, and shall 
come to judge all men." <fec. But by the other, he was 
not born, nor crucified, Sic, but was made of bread, and of 
wine, and yet the papal clergy are sworn to believe and 
teach the two are the same ! As all these contradictions 
are, to be sure, pronounced divine truths ! so, their people, 
rational beings, must believe this, because their clergy 
teach them to do so ! ! ! 

4. By the first article, traditions, and papal decrees, &;c., 



42 THE TRENT CREED. 

(mere inventions of men,) must be admitted, and embraced 
too ; but by the second, the Holy Scripture is coldly to be 
admitted only, not embraced, and that under must severe 
and cautious restrictions. Who can forbear noticing this ? 
And, when we turn to sess. iv. Decretum, de Edit., &c., 
A. D. 1546, and to the rules, De libris prohibitis,* it is 
obvious their dread of the Scriptures is such that it cannot 
be concealed. 

Behold how difficult it was to obtain leave to read the 
word of God, even when translated by Roman Catholics 

* De libns prohibitis, regulse x., &c., " Ten rules fitly framed by 
Fathers chosen by the Trent council, and approved by Pius IV., in his 
Constitution, which begins, Dominici, on the 4th of March, 1564." 

" Rule 4. Cum, experimento manrfestum sit, ^c, whereas, it is 
plain by experience, were the Holy Scriptures read every where in the 
vulgar tongue, more injury than good would follow ; yet if permission 
to read translations of the Bible made by Catholics only, may with 
safety be granted to some, who by such reading, might reap godly 
benefit, this must rest with the judgment of the ftshop or inquisitor, 
together with the counsel of their parish priest. In such cases it may 
be given ; but they must have a license from the bishop in writing ! 
Qui autem absque tali facultate ea legere seu habere presumpserit, 
nisi prills bibliis ordinario redditis, peccaforum absolutionem precipere 
non posset, S(C. " But he that without such license shall presume to 
read or have such books, unless he instantly deliver them up to the 
ordinary, cannot receive the forgiveness of his sins. And the book- 
seller, who, without such license, shall sell or otherwise grant the Bible 
in the vulgar tongue, &c., shall forfeit the price of the books, and be 
otherwise punished at the bishop's discretion, according to the nature 
of his ofience. Nor may the monks, without such license from their 
prelates, read or buy them. 

" Rule X. Liberum tamen Episcopis, S(c. — " But, yet, the bishops 
or inquisitors general, are, by their license which they have, authorized 
to prohibit, in their kingdoms, provinces, or dioceses, those very books 
that appear to be permitted by those rules, if they shall judge fit." So, 
after all the pains of procuring this said license, it can be rendered null 
in an instant ! and then the Bible must not be read. 

Ad extremum vero omnibus Jidelibus, Sfc. — " Lastly, the faithful are 
commanded, that none must dare read or have any books contrary to 
the prescribed rules of this Index ; but if any one shall read or have 
books of heretics, or of any author on heresy, or condemned and pro- 
hibited on suspicion of false dogmas, he instantly incurs the sentence 
of excommunication. And he that shall read or have books of any 
name that are so forbidden him, besides the guilt of mortal sin into 
which he falls, he must be severely punished, according to the judgment 
of the bishops." 

If this be not worse than Egyptian bondage, let common sense decide. 



THE TRENT CREED. 43 

themselves ! See what dread this church ever had of the 
Bible. Thank God ! the darkness is greatly passed, and 
the true light is increasing. 

4. This third new article of faith is unqualified jargon : 
for, " seven Christian sacraments," as per sess. vii. can. 1. 
are insisted on, " as instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ," 
which is proved false. See the discussion on extreme 
unction, where holy orders and it clearly destroy each 
other. And if a sacrament cannot be without Christ's own 
institution, such as baptism and the eucharist alone have, 
then, none of the other five, according to their own show- 
ing, are Christian sacraments at all, because for them no 
institution from Christ can possibly be found in all the 
book of God. 



A CURIOUS EXTRACT 



FROM THE 



PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL, 

(^Page 53, 4-c.) 



**DE DEFECTIBUS /JV CELEBRJlTIOJ^E MTSSjIRUM OCCURRED 
TIB US." 



"RESPECTING DEFECTS OCCURRING IN THE MASS, 



"Potest autem defectus con- 
tingere ex parte Materise conse- 
crandse; et ex parte Formse 
adhibendae, et ex parte Ministri 
conficientis. Quidquid enimhorum 
deficit, scilicet, materia debita, for- 
ma, cum intentione, et ordo sacer- 
dotal-is in conficiente,non conficitur 
sacraraentum." 



"Mass may be defective in 
the Matter to be consecrated, in 
the Form to be used, and in the 
officiating Minister. For if in 
any of these, there be any defect, 
viz., due matter, form, with inten- 
tion, and priestly orders in the 
celebrator, no sacrament is con- 
secrated." 



De defectibus Panis. — The defects in the Bread. 



1st. "Si panis non sit triticeus, 
vel si triticeus, admixtus sit granis 
alterius generis, in tanta quantitate 
ut non maneat panis triticeus, vel 
si alioqui corruptus, non conficitur 
sacramentum. 

2d. "Si sit confectus de aqua 
rosecea, vel alterius distillationis, 
dubium est an conficiatur. 

3d. " Si caeperit corrumpi, sed 
non sit corruptus ; similiter, si non 
sit azymus secundum morem eccle- 
sise Latinae, conficitur ; sed, confi- 
ciens graviter peccat." 



Ist.^" If the bread be not of wheat, 
or if of wheat, it be mixed with such 
quantity of other gr-ain, that it doth 
not remain wheaten bread ; or if it 
be in any way corrupted, it doth 
not make a sacrament. 

2d. " If it be made with rose or 
other distilled water, it is doubtful 
if it make a sacrament 

4d. " If it begin to corrupt but is 
not corrupted : also, if it be not un- 
leavened according to the custom of 
the Latin church, it makes a sacra- 
ment; but the priest sinsgrievously." 
44 



PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL. 



45 



De defectibus Vim. — Of 
"Si vinum sit factum penitus 
acetum, vel penitus putridum, vel 
de uvis acerbis seu non maturis 
expressum, vel ei admixtura tan- 
tum aquae, ut vinum sit corruptum, 
non conficitur sacramentum. 

" Si post consecrationem cor- 
poris, aut etiam vini, deprehenditur 
defectus alterius speciei, altera jam 
consecrata; tunc si nuUo modo 
materia quae esset apponenda haberi 
possit, ad evitandum scandalum 
procedendam erit." 



the defects of the Wine. 

" If the wine be quite sour, or 
putrid, or be made of bitter or un- 
ripe grapes : or if so much water 
be mixed with it, as spoils the 
wine, no sacrament is made. 

" If after the consecration of the 
body, or even of the wine, the 
defect of either kind be discovered, 
one being consecrated ; then, if 
the matter which should be placed 
cannot be had, to avoid scandal, he 
must proceed." 



De defectibus Formse. — The defects in the Form. 



"Si quis, aliquid diminuerit vel 
imrautaret de forma consecrationis 
corporis et sanguinis, et in ipsa 
veri)orum immutatione, verba idem 
non significarent, non conficeret 
sacramentum." 

De defectibus Ministri 

" Defectus ex parte ministri 
possunt contingere quoad ea, quae 
in ipso requiruntur, haec autem 
sunt, imprimis intentio, deinde 
dispositio animae, dispositio corpo- 
ris, dispositio vestimentorum, dis- 
positio in ministerio ipso, quoad ea, 
quae in ipso possunt occurrere. 

" Si quis non intendit conficere, 
sed delusarie aliquid agere. Item 
si aliquae hostiae ex oblivione rema- 
neant in altari, vel aliqua pars vini, 
vel aliqua hostia lateat, cum non 
intendat consecrare, nisi quas videt ; 
item si quis habeat coram se un- 
decim hostius, et intendat conse- 
crare solum decern, non determi- 
nans quas decern intendit, in his 
casibus non consecrat, quia requi- 
ritur intentio, &c., &c., &c. 

"Si hostia consecrata dispareat 
vel casu aliquo aut vento, aut mi- 
raculo, vel ab aliquo animali accep- 
ta, et nequeat reperi ; tunc altera 
consecratur. 



" If any one shall leave out or 
change any part of the form of the 
consecration of the body and blood, 
and in the change of the words, 
such words do not signify the same 
thing, there is no consecration." 

The defects of the Minister. 

" The defects on the part of the 
minister, may occur in these things 
required in him, these are first and 
especially intention, after that, dis- 
position of soul, of body, of vest- 
ments, and disposition in the ser- 
vice itself, as to those matters 
which can occur in it. 

" If any one intend not to con- 
secrate, but to counterfeit ; also, if 
any wafers remain forgotten on the 
altar, or if any part of the wine, or 
any wafer lie hidden, when he did 
not intend to consecrate but what 
he saw ; also, if he shall have be- 
fore him eleven wafers and intend- 
ed to consecrate but ten only, not 
determining what ten he meant, in 
all these cases there is no consecra- 
tion, because intention is required ! ! 

"Should the consecrated host 
disappear, either by accident, or by 
wind, or miracle, or be devoured by 
some animal, and cannot be found ; 
then let another be consecrated. 



46 



PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL. 



" Si post consecrationem cecide- 
rit musca vel arnea, vel aliquid 
ejusmodi in calicern et fiat nausea 
sacerdoti, extrahat earn et lavet cum 
vino,finita missa, comburat et com- 
bustio ac lotio hujusmodi in sacra- 
rium projiciatur. Si autem non 
fuerit ei nausea, nee ullum pericu- 
lum timeat, sumat cum sanguine. 

" Si aliquid venenosum ceciderit 
in caliceni, vel quod provocaret vo- 
mitum, vinum consecratum in alio 
calice reponendum est, et aliud vi- 
num cum aqua apponendura denuo 
consecrandum, sanguis repositus in 
panno lineo vel stuppa taradiu serva- 
tur donee species vini fuerint desic- 
catsB, et tune stuppa eomburatur et 
combustio in sacrarium projiciatur. 

♦' Si aliquod venenatum conti- 
gerit hostiam eonseeratam, tunc 
alteram consecret, et sumat modo 
quo dictum est; et ilia servetur 
in tabernaculo, loco serperato donee 
species corrumpantur, et deinde 
mittatur in sacrarium. 

"Si in hieme sanguis congeletur 
in calice, in vol vatur calix in pannis 
calefactis, si id non proficerit, pona- 
tur in fervente aqua prope altare, 
dummodo in calicern non intret 
donee liquefiat. 

"Si per negligentiam, aliquid de 
sanguine Christi ceciderit, seu qui- 
dem super terram, seu super tabu- 
lam, lingua lambatur, et locus 
ipse radatur quantum satis est, et 
abrasio eomburatur: einis vero in 
sacrarium recondatur. 

" Si sacerdos evomet eucharis- 
tiam, si species integrje appareant 
reverentur sumantur, nisi nausea 
fiat ; tunc enim species eonsecratae 
caute separentur, et in aliquo loco 
saero reponantur donee corrum- 
pantur, et postea in sacrarium pro- 
jiciantur ; quod si species non ap- 
pareant, eomburatur vomitus, et 
cinires in sacrarium mittanttw." 



"If after consecration, a gnat, 
a spider, or any such thing fail 
into the chalice, let the priest swal- 
low it with the bloed, if he can ; 
but if he fear danger and have a 
loathing, let him take it out, and 
wash it with wine, and when mass 
is ended, burn it, and cast it and 
the washing into holy ground. 

" If poison fall into the chalice, 
or what might cause vomiting, let 
the consecrated wine be put into 
another cup, and other wine with 
water be again placed to be conse- 
crated, and when mass is finished, 
let the blood be poured on linen 
cloth, or tow, remain till it be dry, 
and then be burned, and the ashes 
be east into holy ground. 

" If the host be poisoned, let 
another be consecrated and used, 
and that, be kept in a tabernacle, 
or a separate place until it be cor- 
rupted, and after that be thrown 
into holy ground. 

" If in winter the blood be frozen 
in the cup, put warm clothes about 
the cup ; if that will not do, let it 
be put into boiling water near the 
altar, till it be melted, taking care 
it does not get into the cup. 

"If any of the blood of Christ 
fall on the ground by negligence, 
it must be licked up with the 
tongue, the place be sufficiently 
scraped, and the scrapings burned ; 
but the ashes must be buried in 
holy ground. 

" If the priest vomit the eucharist, 
and the species appear entire, he must 
piously swalhiv it again ,• but if a 
nausea prevent him, then let the con- 
secrated species be cautiously sepa- 
rated, and put by in some holy place 
till they be corrupted and after, let 
them be cast into holy ground; but 
if the speciesdonot appear,thevomit 
must be burned and the ashes thrown 
into holy ground." Marvellous ! 



PUBLIC MASS BOOK OR MISSAL. 47 

Who can possibly believe that any rational beings could 
have such a religion, such rules as these, did he not read 
them with his own eyes ? Had it been told him, he would 
doubtless have deemed it mere banter? So then, this 
clergy grant that in twelve or thirteen cases the consecra- 
tion is null, and there is then no true sacrament, and that 
which is received is false ! The adoration of it then is 
idolatry, and the offering up this false mass to God for souls 
in purgatory, or otherwise, is mockery and sacrilege, as is 
the whole service ! Add, that these cases are impossible 
to be guarded against ! But if the priest should happen to 
observe some defect as he officiates, to prevent detection by 
the people, he must go forward, yes, and thus plunge all 
into idolatry ! When Christ never taught such principles, 
who in his senses can deem himself safe in such a church ? 

So then this clergy are sworn to believe, that their 
eucharist, or wafer, is Christ's body, blood, soul, and 
divinity, and yet thus confess, that in all these cases, 
(impossible to be known,) there is a failure, and then in 
the eucharist is no Christ, but the wafer only and the wine. 

And farther they tell us, that the host, i. e. Christ, may 
happen to be lost by some accident, or carried off by wind, 
or eaten by an animal — a mouse, a dog, or cat, or by a 
spider or fly failing into the cup, which the priest must in 
this case swallow if he can, and then may vomit, and take 
out of the vomit, and then adore and devoutly swallow it 
up again. Or he may be frozen up, and released by hot 
water, <fec., &c. Now should not every layman, at least, 
put this question to himself: Do any of these degrading 
things happen to the true Christ in heaven ? If not, this 
must be a fictitious papal Christ, which all who care for 
their souls should beware of. Strong and deep must be 
the delusion of those doctors who teach such enormities, 
and of the people who madly abide with them ! May the 
Almighty awake them from their awful stupor. 



LETTER I. 



EXTREME UNCTION NO SACRAMENT. 



TO THE REV. MR. THAYER. 



Limerick, February 18, 1812. 

Sir — Having yesterdaj^ come to this city, a friend put 
your book, " The Catholic Controversy,'^ into my hands : 
it now lies before me. I see, with no small pleasure, your 
repeated professions of sincere desire to know and propa- 
gate the truth of God, the gospel of Christ. In pages 11, 
12, you tell us, the infallibility of the church of Rome, 
and of her doctrines, in this gospel, over which you so 
much rejoice ; that this is the most essential point to all 
Christians, so that whosoever rejects it, is deemed a heretic, 
and cannot he saved! ! yet declaring yourself open to con- 
viction, and ready to answer any fair questions or objec- 
tions that may be made to your doctrines. This, I confess, 
if the infallibility of the church of Rome be the true gospel, 
I am still an unbeliever; for I never have been able to 
receive it. 

I rejoice, however, to find a man that will fairly and 
lionesdy answer any questions on this subject that may be 
asked. As I also, in my little search after truth, have for 
some years, and with some attention too, considered this 
very system, which has so wonderfully captivated your 
heart ; and yet, to which, after the most careful and dispas- 
sionate investigation of which I am capable, I have many, 
very many and increasing objections. 

Give me leave, sir, to say, you would have abundantly 
more satisfied me, had you written a fair and rational 
5 49 



50 EXTREME UNCTION 

answer to some of those books already published against 
the peculiar tenets of your church, viz.* Tillotson's " Ser- 
mons against Transubstantiation,'^ Bishop Usher's 
^''Friendly Advice to the English Catholics,^'' Peter Da 
Moulin's '^Anatomy of the Mass — The Mass dead and 
buried ivithout hope of resurrection,'^^ Meagher on the 
Mass ; and some of the writings of Jewell, Sharp, Butler, 
Synge, Seeker, Porteus, Bennet, Poole, Needham, &c., &c. 

Had you so done, you would have more effectually 
served the cause you wisli to support, and induced every 
serious inquirer to think more favourably of it, than by 
giving us a new book with nothing new in it ; nothing but 
what you allow, and we well know to have been collected 
from former writers of your church, and which has been 
again and again fully and ably refuted. 

The answers you give to the objections brought against 
you, are, in my judgment, very easily overturned, and will 
by no means satisfy any rational or informed mind, even of 
your church. The sort of arguments you make use of, and 
the way you slip over some things, that should not be 
lightly passed by, show that your cause is very weak if 
not altogether indefensible ; which shall quickly appear, is 
clearly the case. 

EXTREME UNCTION NO CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT. 

Permit me, sir, to trouble you with a few questions con 
cerning extreme unction, one of your seven sacraments. 

1st. How can you prove that extreme unction, which, 
according to the council of Trent, you are sworn to believe 
to be a sacrament, and necessary to salvation, is a sacra- 
ment of Christ's own institution, Avithout which, your 
church allows there cannot be any true Christian sacrament 
at all ? 

2dly. If it be a sacrament, and necessary to salvation, 
why do you refuse it to persons going to die by the sen- 
tence of the law, not having any bodily sickness, to whom, 
however, you deny no other sacrament? and why do ye 
tell them they can go to heaven without it ; but that others, 

* The answers given by Dr. Sarjeant, &c., made up of sophistry^ and 
witticisms; or by ridicule and abuse, as has been the mode of others; 
and whicn leave the main questions untouched, are neither rational nor 
manly, and are unworthy any man's notice. 



NO SACRAMENT. 51 

even such as have bodily sickness if they neglect it cannot 
be saved ? This appears quite a paradox. 

A Christian sacrament you define to be a sensible sign of 
an inward grace, instituted by Christ himself, &c. 

Dr. Challoner, in " Catholic Christian,'''' thus explains it: 

" $wcs.— What are the necessary conditions for a thing 
to be a sacrament? Page 3. 

Ans. — 1st. It must be a sacred, visible, or sensible sign. 

2dly. This sacred sign must have a power annexed to it 
of communicating grace to the soul. 

3dly. This must be, by virtue of the institution of 
Christ." 

Page 4. — "As in baptism^ Christ's institution is found 
in Matt, xxviii. 19 : ' Go teach all nations, baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost;' and in St. John iii. 5 : 'Except a man be born of 
water and of the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter the kingdom 
of heaven.' " 

Page 23. — '*The sacrament of the eucharist was insti- 
tuted by our Lord Jesus Christ, at his last supper. Matt. 
xxvi. 26, 27. Luke xxii. 19." Thus, the bishop brings 
Christ's own words for the institution of baptism and the 
eucharist. But we shall see when his proofs are examined, 
if he can do so as it regards extreme unction. 

Now I require of you, reverend sir, where are the words 
of Christ for the institution of this extreme unction to 
be found? Fly not from my question: answer me if you 
can? 

I know the council of Trent tells us, in sess. 14, chap. 
1, can. 1, (cursing all that dare disbelieve,) "That in the 
6th chapter of St. Mark, Christ's institution of the extreme 
UNCTION is to be found," ".^ Christo Domino nostro, apucl 
Marcmn, 6 cap., quidem insiniiatum ;^'' and that it was 
published by St. James, 5th chapter, ";;er Jacobum apos- 
toium promiilgatum.''^ The council pretends no other 
authority in the whole book of God, but this single hint, 
said to be in Mark vi. ! ! ! So we see, when they could 
find no words of Christ for this extreme unction, (which it 
seems they were determined at all events to have,) they 
take for it another foundation, even an insintiatum, a hint, 
a conjecture ; and curse all who will not admit it! I ask, 
is this sufficient to satisfy any man of candour or informa- 



52 



EXTREME UNCTION 



tion, even of yourselves ? So, then, popes may conjecture 
that Christ spoke what words they wish, build sacraments 
or what whimsies they please on them, and make laws to 
coerce men to receive them ! To crouch to such spiritual 
tyranny argues the deepest infatuation ! 

But lest I should be charged with unfair garbling, I shall 
adduce the entire law of the council concerning it ; and 
which, when examined, must indeed amaze all who con- 
sider it ! 



CONCERNING THE INSTITUTION OF EXTREME UNCTION. 
SESS. 14, CAP. I. IXST. SACRAM. EX. VSC. 



"Instituta est autem sacra hsec 
unctio infirmorum, tanquam vere 
et proprie sacramentum Novi Tes- 
tamenti, a Christo Domino nostro, 
apud Marcum,quidera insinuatum, 
per Jacobiim autem apostolura 
fidelibus commendatum ac promul- 
gatum. ' Infirmatur,' inquit, ' quis 
in vobis : inducat presbyteros ec- 
clesifB, et orent super eum, un- 
gentes eum olco in nomino Domi- 
ni : et oratio fidei salvabit infir- 
raum: et alleviabit eum (instead 
of iyi^ii eivTiv, eriget eum) Domi- 
nus ; et, si in peccatis sit, dimitten- 
tur ei ;' quibus verbis, ut ex apos- 
tolica traditione. per manus accepta, 
ecclesia didicit." 



"This holy anointing of the sick is 

INSTITUTED, AS IT WERE, tO be 8 

true and propersacramentof the New 
Testament ; hixted at indeed by 
Christ our Lord, in St. Mark, but 
recommended and preached to the 
faithful by the apostle St. James ; 
he saith, ' Is any sick among you, 
let him send for the elders of the 
church, and let them pray over him, 
anointing him with oil in the name 
of the Lord, and the prayer of fait li 
shall save the sick, and the Lord 
shall ease him (7-aise him up,) and 
if he be in sins they shall be for- 
given him,' by which words the 
church hath learned this, as it were 
from apostolic tradition received 
by hand." 



THE CANONS FOR EXTREME UNCTION. 



Can. 1. Si quis dixerit, extre- 
mam unctionem non esse vere et 
proprie sacramentum a Christo 
Domino nostro institutum et a 
beato Jacobo apostolo promulga- 
tum ; sed figmentum humanum ; 
anathema sit. 

Can. 2. Si quis dixerit, sacram 
infirmorum unctionem non conferre 
gratiam nee remittere peccata, nee 
alleviare iiifirmos ; sed jam ces- 
sasse, quasi olim tantum fuerit 
gratia curationum ; anathema sit. 



" If any shall say, extreme 
unction is not truly and properly 
a sacrament instituted by Chri&t 
our Lord, and preached by the 
apostle St. James; but that it 
is a human invention, let him be 
accursed. 

" If any shall say, that the holy 
anointing of the sick doth not confer 
grace, nor remit sins, nor relieve the 
sick; but that it had long since 
ceased, as if of old, it hath only 
been the grace of healing, let him 
be accursed." 



NO SACRAMENT. 53 

Let any man of candour examine this extraordinary 
chapter and these two canons, and shall he not see that the 
council themselves were fully aware that they were going 
aside from truth in forming this sacrament? 

In the penning of the chapter or preamble respecting 
extreme unction, they manifest much caution. But in can. 
1, they determine at all events to strike a bold stroke ; they 
at once lay aside all restraint and fear ! The reader will 
mark this ! 

In the chapter, they say the extreme unction was insti- 
tuted ; but they don't once attempt to say it was by Christ; 
they only modestly assert '■'•he insinuated it!'''' he hinted 
at it ^' insiniiatum quidem.^'''^ Nor do they say it was a 
positive sacrament, but only (tanquam) us it were, a sacra- 
ment. They do not once presume to say that they have 
any positive institution in Scripture for it, but only that the 
church learned it from a tradition come by hand '-'' accepta 
per manus.^^ What a strange foundation for a sacrament, 
sworn to have been taught by Christ! Who can endure 
such self-contradiction ? 

In the face of this, however, and as a standing and lasting 
evidence of their blindness and confusion, they form, and 
leave on record, a canon, insisting that Christ himself did 
positively institute the extreme unction as a true and proper 
sacrament ; yet, in the chapter, they confess he did not, for 
that he only hinted at it : and then enjoin it as an article of 
faith, with a curse on any who shall deny it, or call it a 
forgery. 

* The author of the History of the Council of Trent, page 351, tells 
us, " that the words 'instituted by Christ our Lord, in St. Mark,' were 
first written ; but a divine present at the council observed, ' if the apos- 
tles were not made priests till the last supper, it would seem a contradic- 
tion that the unction which they had administered before, was a sacra- 
ment, and that priests only are ministers of it.' But some who held 
extreme unction to be a sacrament, answered, ' that Christ made them 
priests at that time, concerning that action only.' Yet it was thought 
too dangerous to affirm this absolutely. Therefore, instead of the word 
instiiutum, they put insinuatum.'" One thing from this is clear, that 
the council saw, that as the undion then ministered was not by priestft, 
so it was not a sacrament; and this thev prove, by pulling out the word 
instituted, and putting in another word sounding like it, merely to 
amuse the people. Hut by and by, they clap in the word histitutum 
again, to serve their purpose ! shame, where is thy blubh ! 
5* 



54 EXTREME UNCTION 

And in the second canon they curse all who shall say, 
it was only the grace of healing, or of miraculous cures, 
which was intended, of old, by the anointing; which proves, 
that they saw evidently, from the Scriptures, that this was 
the very use of it; and which had been already objected 
against them ! 

What would you, sir, or any of your friends say, if Pro- 
testants were thus to form sacraments, and at the same time 
unblu shingly confess they built them on mere conjecture I 
Would you not, as an honest man, and defender of Christ's 
holy religion, execrate such deceptions, and lift up your 
voice as well as your pen against them ? Yet, the council 
of Trent, the holy infallible council! three hundred bi- 
shops, with the pope at their head, during their nineteen 
years sitting, made diligent search to find some word of 
Christ for this their extreme unction, and having failed, 
they yet stop not to build it on a foundation palpably /a/^e, 
rather than want it: and then make a law, that all their 
successors forever shall swear and teach, " that they be- 
lieve Christ instituted the sacrament of extreme unction,'''' 
though it is acknowledged under their own hands, as we 
have just seen, they built it on a mere conjecture, an insi- 
nuafum! U 

|Cj°" Before I go farther, suffer me, sir, to adduce an 
argument, from premises granted by the council itself, 
which involves it in this plain dilemma ; that the extreme 
unction is no sacrament ; or, that the apostles were not 
made priests at the last supper, as the council alBrms they 
were, and thus overthrows its own infallibility at once. 

The council, sess. 14, cap. 3, declares that the ministers 
of extreme unction are " episcopi aut sacerdotes ab ipsis 
rite ordinati;^'' " bishops or priests truly ordained by them." 
And in sess. 22, cap. 1, '■'-quos tunc, (in novissima ccena,) 
Novi Testamenti sacerdotes constituebat f' "that it was 
not till the last supper that our Lord ordained the aposdes 
to be priests of the New Testament." 

When the apostles administered the unction to the sick, 
Mark vi. 13, they were then priests, or they were not 
priests. If they were priests then, they were not made 
priests at the last supper ; and tlie council, in affirming they 
were, have erred : or if they were not priests then, or till 
the last supper, the unction, not being ministered by 



NO SACRAMENT. 55 

priests, was no sacrament ; and the council in declaring it 
was a sacrament, has gready erred. In either case, the 
councd has overthrown its own infallibility, and that of the 
church of Rome ! ! ! The doctors were aware of this con- 
clusion as it regarded the priesthood, conferred, as they 
say, at the last supper, therefore it was that they put in the 
word insinuatwn, and put out institutum as before 
noticed. But this relieves them nothing, for the conclusion 
remains the same. 

Another blow at the root is this. As there was no pro- 
per sacrifice till the death of Christ, and none was in the 
last supper, nor therefore in any eucharist forever, so were 
not the apostles ever made proper sacrificers or priests at 
all, nor of course were any others forever. And if no such 
priests were ever divinely appointed, it follows, that the 
office is a mere human fiction, and extreme unction is 
impossible to be a true sacrament, and is but a fiction also. 
And as all fictions are accursed of God, then can this 
fiction, extreme unction, never be a blessing, but a curse, 
of course. 

But when, however, we turn to the sixth chapter of 
Mark, for even this hint, behold ! there is no such thing at 
all ! not one word from Christ about any unction what- 
ever ! but only the simple narrative of the evangelist, 
telling of the ceremony which the apostles used in miracu- 
lously healing the sick, as commanded them by our Lord, 
in the third chapter, 14th and 15th verses. "He gave 
them power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils," 
and again, chapter x;vi. 18, "They shall lay hands on the 
sick and they shall recover;" and Luke x. 9, "And into 
whatsoever city ye enter, heal the sick that are therein." 
And this they did, as the evangelist in chapter vi. 13, nar- 
rated. '•''And they preached that men should repent, and 
they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many 
that ivere sick, and healed them^'' of their bodily diseases. 
Let any one examine these passages, even in the Douay 
Testament, and he will quickly find this statement to be 
correct. 

And that it is to this bodily cure, to be thus miraculously 
effected, St. James refers, and to this only, not to any sa- 
crament, is fully manifest from his own words in his 5th 
chapter, "AcsOtrft fij tv v^tv ;" Infirmatur quis in vohis? 



56 EXTREME UNCTIOX 

Is a.ny sick among you, (of a bodil}- disease,) let them cali 
for (the " n;p?5,3u-rfpot'j") the elders or presbyters of the 
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with 
oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith, of a 
miracle-working faith, (such as Elias had, v. 17, and St. 
Paul, Acts xxviii. 8,) " auofv tov xauvovta^ — salvabit in- 
jirmum vel laborantem, " shall save the sick man" from 
his sickness^ — from the [incommoda ac labores tnorbi) "the 
pains and agonies of his disease," as the council of Trent, 
sess. 14, chap. 2, confesses. Kac ^y^pnav tov o Kvptoj — Et 
eriget eum Dominus, " And the Lord shall raise him up," 
(not alleviabit, ease him,) as the council of Trent, Dr. Chal. 
and others do write ; thus, striving to evade the manifest 
force of the apostle's expression, " syapft avtov,^^ raise hi>i 
UP ; and that, contrary even to the Rhemish Testament, 
which has the words " raise him up." This raising up 
of the sick man, then, is evidently, from his sickness to 
health again, and perfectly agrees with the miraculous cures 
in St. Mark, as already stated ; and so, at once overthrows 
your extreme unction, which you call " sacrament ion exe- 
untium, sacramentum finis vitas,^^ "the sacrament of the 
dying, the sacrament of the end of life," and so, rather of 
putting the sick man down into his grave ; which cannot 
mean, raising hdi up. Disprove this reasoning if you are 
able. 

"And if he has committed sins they shall be forgiv^en 
him." This clause alone destroys extreme unction, — which 
you say is intended to remit sins, — for, if there be no sins 
to be remitted, the extreme unction is quite needless. Now, 
the sick man might have been afflicted, (as the man was 
" with blindness," John ix. 3,) not because of any sin, as 
the apostle intimates in the words " If he has committed 
sins," but only for the glory of God, that the miracle being 
wrought on him, his health being thus miraculously restored ; 
and also that unbelievers seeing it might be convinced, (see 
Acts iii.,) and with him glorify God. St. James's anointing, 
which would have been effectual, even on the supposition 
that the man had not committed sin, miraculously to raise 
him up, was, therefore, it is plain, for healing only ; and not 
at all to remit sins ; and of course utterly overthrows yours, 
which pretends to have the remission of sins for its object. 

The meaning of the apostle is evidently this : If the sick 



NO SACRAMENT. 57 

man, by any particular sin, brought this sickness on him- 
self, as a judgment from God ; (as did those mentioned in 
1 Cor. xi. 29, who, for unworthily eating the Lord's supper, 
were afflicted with weakness, sickness, and even death,) 
(see also 1 John v. 16,) being now penitent, his sin or sins 
shall be forgiven him, as well as his afflictions miraculously 
removed, not by the anointing only, but by the prayer of 
faith, the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man, who 
had the power given him in those days of working such 
miracles. Even the apostles themselves, who had the gift 
of healing, 1 Cor. xii. .30, though commanded to heal the 
sick in every town, and village, yet could do so, only on 
particular occasions and times, which they knew within 
themselves, by the Spirit they possessed ; for St. Paul left 
Trophimus, his friend, sick at Miletus, and could not bring 
him with him, because he could not then heal him. 

Therefore, they did not anoint indiscriminately as ye 
do, all the dying sick, but only such as they, by the Spirit 
of God, knew were lo be healed. This anointing, then, 
was not to help them to die well, nor yet to heal all ; for 
then all should have been anointed and raised up, and 
saved from sickness, and also from death itself, and none 
would die. 

We have examined the New Testament again and again, 
and although we read there of oil being used for several 
and different purposes, yet we can find no oil consecrated 
or unconsecrated, to agree with this extreme unction, to 
help people to die well, defend them against the devil at the 
hour of death, or remit sins, as yours is pretended to do. 
We find oil used for cleanliness. Matt. vi. 16, "When ye 
fast," saith our Lord, " anoint your head and wash your 
face, &c. : for hospitality, Luke vii. 46, " Thou didst not 
anoint my head with oil," saith he, reproving the inatten- 
tive Pharisee : for miraculously curing the sick, as a cere- 
mony only sometimes used, and joined with the prayer of 
faith, as we have just seen, Mark vi. 13 : for burial. Matt. 
xxvi. 10 — 12, " She hath wrought a good work on me," 
saith Christ, " for, in pouring this oil upon my body, she 
hath anointed me for my burial.'''' John xii. Observe, it 
was not by an apostle or priest he was anointed, but by a 
luoman ; (what will ye priests say to this?) — not for his 
death, but for his burial, as the Lord said: nor was it with 



58 EXTREME UNCTION 

oil blessed by a bishop, or consecrated, without which you 
say it could not be a sacrament, she anointed him ; no, but 
with cosily oil of spikenard, not to teach us extreme unc 
Hon, but as a strong evidence of her love, which Christ 
said should be spoken of in all places to her praise, contrary 
to the judgment of Judas who had reproved her for that act. 
She perfumed or embalmed him, as was the custom then 
used among the Jews for the dead before burial, and also 
after it. So, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped 
up our Lord's dead body, for his burial, with 100 lbs. 
weight of rich ointment or spice. John xix. 40. And the 
women brought sweet spices and ointments the third day 
after our Lord's death and burial to anoint him, in the tomb. 
Mark xvi. 1. Luke xxiii. 56; xxiv. 1. Where, in all this, 
is there any shadow for extreme unction ? 

So, through the whole Testament, any more than in St. 
Mark or St. James, there is not the least mention made of 
any oil to help people to die well, or in any wise to favour 
extreme unction. Where then was it found ? How, I ask 
you, can you now prove, what you are on your oath to be- 
lieve and teach, that " extreme unction is a sacrament of 
Christ's institution ?" It is not in the power of man to an- 
swer. And yet your church obliges you to believe that 
Christ did institute this sacrament ! a strong mark of her in- 
fallibility ! ! ! Now, sir, what think you of your light, to 
which you so pressingly invited all Protestant ministers ? 
Will you still stand forth in defence of the genuine popery ? 
Support it if you can. 

Having fully proved that the extreme unction lias no place 
in the word of God ; I shall now proceed to maintain, that 
the practice and writings of your clergy and the laws of 
your church to thisj day, prove against yourselves, that it is 
no sacrament, nor necessary for any man's salvation ; and 
that in saying it is a sacrament and necessary, ye contradict 
yourselves. 

Now, your "law forbids you to minister the extreme 
unction to any, but to persons who come to the use of rea- 
boti, and are in danger of death by bodily sickness."* 
Therefore, ye will not anoint persons in the hour of death, 
>vho have not such sickness, who are going to die by the 

* See " Catholic Christian Instructed," on this subject. 



NO SACRAMENT. 59 

sentence of the law, let tliem desire it ever so much ; but 
ye will give them the eucharist, which ye allow to be above 
all your other sacraments, which proves ye do not judge 
them unworthy of any ; and ye tell them they have no need 
of the extreme unction, that the others are quite sufficient, 
and that they can go to heaven without it. Now, if they 
can so well do without it, then it is not necessary ; and if 
not necessary, it is no sacrament J and if no necessary sa- 
crament, as ye grant. Why may not all men do without it, 
seeing God is no respecter of persons? And now I press 
you again. How can you prove it necessary, and yet not ne- 
cessary ? He is no common champion indeed who shall 
do this. 

Thus you evidence to all men, you do not believe the 
extreme unction to be a sacrament ordained by Christ, or to 
be at all necessary to any man's salvation ; and thus ye 
fully contradict, what ye are obliged, nay sworn to believe, 
receive, and teach, to wit, " That Christ did ordain it, and 
that it is necessary ! ! !" Must not this alarm you ? 

Your Bishop Challoner, with all his ingenuity, is mightily 
perplexed (as we see in page 112 of his " Catholic Chris- 
tian") when he wants to prove the extreme unction to be a 
sacrament ^ as are all your writers. He cannot find any 
Avords of Christ for it, in any part of the Bible, as he did 
for the Lord's supper and baptism ; he is at his wit's end; 
he must defend, if possible, his infallible church, but, alas ! 
he cannot find weapons ; at length he ventures to lay hold on 
St. James's words, and nnblushingly presses them into his 
service : yet he knew well, by so doing, he directly contra- 
dicted himself, as I shall prove ; but then, they were the 
only words he could find, that seemed at all to look that 
way ; so he slips them in, hoping the pious fraud would 
not be observed. 

In the first place, he was fully aware, that the very 
apostles themselves had no power to add or diminish. Gal. 
i. 8, or to form any sacrament or doctrine whatever, but 
only, to publish, explain, and enforce those already taught 
and appointed by Christ. So St. Paul, when explaining 
and enforcing the Lord's supper, 1 Cor. xi. 23 ; refers to 
our Lord's own words, Luke xxii. 19 ; and St. Peter, on 
baptism. Acts x. 46, refers to Matthew xxviii. 19. And, 
therefore the bishop knew that St. James's words in tlie 



60 EXTREME UNCTION 

5th chapter of his epistle, having no reference to any words 
of Christ, except to those for healing the sick, St. Mark vi. 
13, as already noticed, could not be made a foundation for 
this extreme unction. His corrupting the words [eriget 
turn, raise him up, into alleviabit, ease him, as before ob- 
served) proves against him, he saw clearly the text did not 
favour him, nor mean what he would have it. 

Secondly. He knew, even the council of Trent did not 
attempt to build extreme unction on St. James's words, but 
on a hint pretended to be given by Christ himself, as we 
have before remarked ; and he could not forget, that in 
pages 3, 4, of his book, he laid it down as an unalterable 
proposition, " that a sacrament cannot be without Christ's 
own institution, nor can have any virtue at all but from 
it;" and instanced the Lord's supper and baptism, with 
proofs, yet in page 112 of his book, he entirely departs from 
this his own proposition, and in direct opposition to it, 
steals in and substitutes the words of St. James, " 7s any 
sick,'''' &c., for the words of Christ, and thus contradicts 
and upsets himself; and also proves to every observer, he 
entangled himself in this dilemma, That a true Christian 
sacrament cannot be without Christ's institution ; and can 
be v/ithout it. Hence his own proposition is false; and 
extreme unction is no sacrament, but a fiction, a fraud, 
which he could not with all his ingenuity defend. And 
thus, he at once ruins his cause, his infallibility, and church 
together ! ! ! 

The bishop did what he Could ; but to convert falsehood 
into truth is a hard task indeed ; yet his book is deemed 
the best defence of the religion of Rome that can be found, 
certainly it is one of the most ingenious ; but errors sustained 
by ingenuity are the more to be detested. Thus have 1 
proved that your own writers and practice make it evident, 
extreme unction is a forgery ; and yet your solemn oath 
obliges you to believe and teach it as God's truth ! ! ! 

Before I close this part of my inquiry, permit me to ask 
one question more. If the extreme unction be indeed a sa- 
crament to remit the sins of dying persons ; has not he, 
who is at the point of death and not sick, sins to be re- 
mitted, as well as he that is sick? Why then will you not 
anoint the one, and thus remit his sins, as ye do the other's. 
Now answer me. Because the church, for some good 



NO SACRAMENT. 61 

reason, has forbid it. Cruel church ! to forbid a poor dying 
man's sins to be remitted ! But why, I pray, has your 
church forbid it ? I can't tell. You can't tell, or you are 
loth. But I can soon tell, and I will too. Your council 
or church, when appointing- this sacrament, foresaw a ques- 
tion might perhaps be started by some busybody, or some 
Protestant, Will you anoint this man, not sick, now at the 
hour of death, as you do the sick man, and by what autho- 
rity will you do so ? If ye should reply, We will anoint 
him, and by St. James's authority, who commanded the 
dying sick to be anointed. But he might cry out. Is he 
sick? Then ye would be caught, ye could not answer, 
and the cheat would be manifest. So, to prevent this dis- 
covery, this nonplus, the council decreed not to anoint any 
not sick. View the subject as ye will, does it not still be- 
come more and more evident St. James's anointing was 
only for the miraculous curing of the sick, and to raise him 
up to health, and not to remit his sins and help him to die 
well, as ye pretend. But by refusing to anoint him, and 
confessing he is safe without it, are ye not equally non- 
plused ? 

But the council of Trent and " Catholic Christian" tell 
us, (yet without any proof,) the use of this (pretended) sa- 
crament is, to defend the dying Christian in that important 
hour from the assaults of Satan, as with a certain impreg- 
nable bulwark, " tanquam prsesidio quo vis Jirmissimo 
munire,^^ and to finally purge him from any sins, at least 
venial or temporal, that may have been till then unremoved, 
and so fit him fully for heaven, sess. 14, chap. 2, can. 2. 
How frightful if not true, as being a cheat, at the very hour 
of death ! 

Now, if by this extreme unction all these grand things 
are done, and every fault or sin which might till then have 
remained on the soul are entirely removed forever, as ye 
say, why then go to purgatory to atone for them over again ? 
and why so many masses to hasten those poor mortals out ? 
Certainly, this does not appear reconcilable. 

But, if ye believe the souls of those thus anointed do not 
go to purgatory, and I am very sure they do not, for I shall 
presently prove there is no such place, why then do ye say 
so many masses, when employed and paid for them, to de- 
liver those from it who are not in it ? Do ve not then wil- 
6 



62 EXTREME UNCTION 

fully " offer Christ," as ye say, " as a price to the Fathei,''' 
for nothing at all ! and also defraud the people of their mo- 
ney ! Or if ye say, he is in purgatory, how could that be, 
if the anointing purifies from all sins ? Then ye must have 
deceived the people when ye taught them, the anointing 
cleansed any sins that might have remained till then, and 
purified the soul. Thus, the guilt of a wilful mockery of 
God, or of wilful fraud, must be the certain consequence of 
saying masses for any who have been anointed before death. 
Hence, you should say no masses for any who have been 
anointed, to relieve them from purgatory ; or you ought to 
give up extreme unction as useless : otherwise you involve 
yourself in the above painful consequences, which, in the 
eyes of every thinking man, must be most shocking ! Thus, 
sir, it is manifest, if extreme unction be true, it destroys 
purgatory ; and if purgatory be true, extreme unction is 
false ; they alternately destroy each other. 

Nothing save the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ alone, 
applied by the Holy Ghost, through faith, can purify the 
soul. " The blood of Jesus Christ," saith holy John, 
"cleanseth from all sin;" and that in our lifetime only; 
for, if we die in our sins, we are undone. The Scriptures 
testify of no other way. So, it is manifest, extreme unction 
has no foundation in truth. 

Then, it is to be concluded that infallibility which teaches 
this extreme unction and the like, so far from being the 
gospel of Christ, a guide from heaven, as you would have 
it believed, must be the veiy reverse, even an ignis fatims, 
v/hich leads those who follow it into such inextricable diffi- 
culties and errors as are inconceivable ; and is only an in- 
genious instrument of the temporal wealth and domination 
of the pope and his clergy, and of the spiritual slavery and 
ruin of mankind. 

I once waited on the Reverend Priest Ainwright, who I 
learned, had been very violent against his flock, and 
accosted him thus: "Sir, I am a preacher; I have been 
informed of your great displeasure at some of your people 
for having heard our doctrine. I wish to lay it before you, 
and shall be gladly reproved, if you can point out my error." 

'Sir," said he, "you know we don't allow sal ," 

he hesitated, not willing, I suppose, to give me pain. 

'Proceed, sir," said I, smiling, "speak it out. You were 



NO SACRAMENT. 63 

going to say, you don't allow salvation out of your 
CHURCH." "Just so," said he, mildly. " Surely, sir, you 
have too much information and good sense to believe as you 
have said. Which, sir, let me ask you, is this sentiment 
sound divinity, or ecclesiastical policy to keep your flocks 
with you ? Not sound divinity surely ; for, I suppose you 
would not think it right to contradict the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the virgin Mary, and the apostles. The holy Mary saith, 
' God's mercy is on all that fear him, from generation to 
generation.^ Luke i. 50. St. Peter testifies, ' God is no 
respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth 
God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.' 
A.cts X. St. Paul declares the same, Rom. ch. ii. and x., 
* There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, 
but the same Lord over all, is rich unto cdl that ccdl upon 
him, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
shcdl be saved.'' And to crown all, Christ himself pro- 
claims, viii. 51, 'He that keepeth my saying, shall never 
see death ;' and Mat. vii. '■He that heareth these my words, 
and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man who built 
his house upon a rock.^ And, sir, will you deem it right 
to contradict all these ?" 

"But our councils define, as I have said." "Your 
councils, sir, often contradict one another. Your councils, 
sir, against Christ ! against the apostles ! and against the 
virgin Mary ! How impious must be such coimcils ! and 
how deeply deluded are they who are guided by them ! 
What? Councils opposed to Christ, must be of Antichrist!" 

"But, don't you speak against our anointing?" "Per- 
haps we do, and I myself particularly; and don't you your- 
selves do so also ?" " How so ?" " Don't you say, if a 
man be not in a state of grace before he is anointed, the 
anointing can do him no good?" "Certainly, we allow 
that." " Now, if he be in a state of grace before it, is he 
not then accepted with God and safe?" " Yes." " Then it 
is needless, and why use it? Thus you yourselves are 
obliged to own it useless in either case. But why, sir, do 
you curse the people for hearing me, and such like persons ; 
for hearkening to what you now see you cannot contra- 
dict?" "Surely, sir," replied he, "I cannot help it, I 
must do so; the bishop orders me, and I must obey him, 
or abide the consequences." But to return 



64 EXTREME UNCTION 

You may now, reverend sir, possibly fly from the word 
of God to antiquity, and tell me that Pope Innocent, in 
the fifth century, gave directions to the Bishop of Eugubium 
concerning the anointing of the faithful sick, and calls it a 
kind of sacrament ; that Bede also speaks of it, and that it 
has long been practised by good Christians, and by some 
eminent for learning and piety, and why not now likewise? 

I answer, your church allows no true sacrament can be 
without Christ's own institution, which, it is plain, this 
has not ; and no antiquity posterior to Christ, found teach- 
ing any doctrine he and his apostles taught not, must be 
regarded, much less supply the want of his institution, for 
the apostle curses all who do this, " If we or an angel from 
heaven teach you any gospel but what we have taught 
you, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8. 

But Pope Innocent, coming four hundred and sixteen 
years after, is entirely too late ; besides, even he is against 
you, for he proves that in his day extreme unction was no 
sacrament, as you hold it ; if it were, would the bishop who 
wrote for directions to him, (which you admit,) and whom 
he, by letter, permits to anoint the sick, not with such oil 
as you use, but with the oil of chrism, which was used for 
several purposes ; I say, were it a known and received 
sacrament among Christians, would the bishop be so 
ignorant of it? For he asks Innocentius these two ques- 
tions, " AVhether the sick might be anointed with the oil of 
chrism ? and whether the bishops might anoint with it ? 
These questions fully manifest this anointing was not in 
use before. 

Innocent answers him, "/if was not only allowable for 
him to do so, but that it might be laivfuUy used by all 
priests, nay, and by all Christians too, not only in their 
own necessities, but in those of any of their friends. ''^ 
So, you see, he does not confine the ministering of it to the 
clergy alone, as doth the council of Trent, but the laymen 
might also minister it; therefore, by your own rule, it was 
no sacrament. Ep. Innocen. Imo ad Decent. Eugub. 
Episcop. vol. i. 

Besides, his calling it a hind of sacrament, showeth 
plainly it was only something that resembled, but was not 
really a sacrament ; and many such things had they among 
them which they called a kind of sacrament, as the sacra- 



NO SACRAMENT. 6-^ 

ment of prayer, of washing, &c. " The cross of Christ, 
(saith Pops Leo, in ser. ii. de resur.) is a sacrament 
and an example." Added to this, it was not of pure 
oil, which, with you, must be the matter of this sacra- 
ment : but of chrism, a compounded substance of oil and 
balm. 

As for what is found in Bede, QScumenius, and in otiier 
writers of your church, and in the councils of the eightli 
and ninth centuries, concerning anointing, it clearly ex- 
presses the use of it, not as a sacrament for the good of the 
soul, but as a rite, which, as they thought, carried with it 
healing to the body, being the use for which it was first 
applied by the apostles ; and so it is still used in the Greek 
church.* 

We hear of no sacrament of anointing, mentioned by the 
writers of the first three centuries, nor in the fourth, thougli 
the writers, and particularly the councils of the fourth age, 
abound in rules concerning the sacraments ; nor in all their 
canons respecting penitents when in their last extremities 
is there so much as a hint given concerning the last unction 
or its virtues. 

Let the Lives of Saints, written by your own authors, 
(suppose Alban Butler's, &c.,) be consulted, and does it 
appear that any one of the saints, for several hundred years 
after Christ, got any extreme unction to help him to die 
well? And had it such virtues as you say, or were it at 
all used, could it have been thus entirely forgotten and 
unheeded ? 

Hear now a few of your own writers, and be astonished ; 
Cajetan, Maldonat, Suarez, &c. 

Cardinal Cajetan on St. James v. saith, ^^ Neque appa- 
7'f^" &c., "it neither appears by the words nor by the 
effect, that St. James speaks of the sacrament of extreme 
unction, but rather of that unction which our Lord appointed 
in the gospel, to be used on sick persons by his disciples. 
For the text does not say, is any man sick unto death, but 
absolutely, is any sick ? and it makes the effect to be the 
recovery of the sick, and speaks but conditionally of the 
Ibrgiveness of sins, whereas extreme unction is not given 
but when a man is almost at the point of death ; and as the 

* Bede, vol, ii. sec. 5, 

6* 



66 EXTREME UNCTION 

form of words then used sufficiently shows, it tends directly 
to the forgiveness of sins. "^ 

Maldonat, in loco si sacramentum, &c., "If the sacra- 
ment of extreme unction Z^e not herf in St. Mark vi. whert 
isitr' 

Chemnitius saith, "The progress of this unction clearly 
shows it to be no sacrament: for first, the apostles anointed 
the sick with common oil to heal them ; then others began 
to add benediction and to consecrate the oil, bat yet they 
used it to the same end for which the apostles used it 
before, viz., to cure the sick miraculously, as appears by the 
miracles said to be done with holy oil by St. Martin, and 
many others, &c. But when at length miracles w^ere quite 
ceased, the ceremony of anointing still went on."t 

Saurez,± on extreme unction, tells us, "that Hugo of St. 
Victor, Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Altissidore, 
&c., (eminent schoolmen,) denied this sacrament to have 
been instituted by Christ; and by plain consequence, it was 
not a true sacrament." Now all these fathers, and other 
great doctors, who have taught that Christ instituted only 
two sacraments, viz. baptism and the eucharist, come to 
the same conclusion, unavoidably so ! We shall hear 
them. 

St. Augustine saith, § " While Adam slept, Eve was made 
out of his side; when Christ was dead, his side was pierced, 
that thence might flow the sacraments by which his church 
is formed." — " Sacraments in number fewest, in practice 
easiest, in signification highest ; by which he formed the 
society of the new^ people ; such are baptism and the com- 

* Vol. ii. tit. 7, p. 60. 

f Vol. ii, sect. 2, tit. 7, page 74. 

i Inter Catholicos nonnulli neo:arunt sacramentum ext. unct. fuisse a 
Christo institutum ; ex quo plane sequebatur non esse veruin sacra- 
mentum ; ita vero sensit Hugo de S. Vict. 1, 2, de Sacram. c. ii. quern 
secutus est. Pet. Lomb. Magister- Dist. in 4, 23. Alens. qu. 8, m. 2. 
Altissiod. 1, 4. Sum. Tract. 7, c. 1. Saurez in 3 Pars. Thomae disp. 39, 
sec. 2, torn. 4. 

§ " Dormicnti Adamse fit Evade latera ; mortuo Christo percutitur latus, 
ut profluant sacrainenta, quibus formetur ecclesia." — " Sacramentis nu- 
raero paucissimis, observatione facillimis, significatione prsestantissimis, 
societatem novi populi colligavit ; sicuti est baptismus et communicatio 
corporis et sanguinis ipsius." — " Hrec sunt ecclesiae gemina sacramenta." 
Augus. tract, 9, in Joan. Leo. ep. 22, Ep. 118, ad Januai-. torn. 2. De 
Symb, ad Cathsc. torn. 9, 



NO SACRAMENT. 67 

rnunioii of his body and blood," — " these are the twin 
sacraments of his church," &c. 

" The doctors of this (sixth) age, as those of former 
times, acknowledged only two sacraments, baptism and the 
Lord's supper.'''"^ 

Venerable Bede, following St. Augustine, writes, " Eve 
was framed out of Adam's side ; so from Christ's side hang- 
ing on the cross issued the sacraments, to wit, water and 
blood, whereby the church is constituted."! 

Cassander tells us, (Consult, art. 13,) "That until the 
days of Peter Lombard, (anno 1145,) scarce any author 
could be found who rashly set down any certain number 
of sacraments, save those two of our salvation, of which 
there is no dispute. "J 

Alexander of Hales, on Confirmation, saith, " Sine 
prsejudicio dicendum,'^ " for, without prejudice, it must 
be acknowledged, that neither did our Lord institute this 
sacrament or dispense it, nor did his apostles ; but it was 
appointed [in concilio Mehlensi) by the council of Mel- 
dain," in France. Hallensis Sum. pars iv. qusest. 23. 

Thus it is evident all real antiquity, and eminent papal 
doctors too, as well as Christ and his apostles, are against 
this extreme unction, as is your own practice likewise, to- 
wards those of your own church, dying by the law, as I 
have already stated, § and yet ye are sworn that you believe 

* "Duo tantura sacramenta theologi hujus sextae setatiH agnoscunt." 
Illyric. Catalog, test. Verit. 1, 6. 

•j- Sicut ex latere Adam, &c. Beda in Psal. 41, torn. 8. 

I Nee temere quemquam reperis ante Petrum Lombardum qui certum 
aliquem," &c. 

§ 1 once met a man in the county of Sligo, who, upon explaining to 
him that extreme unction is no sacrament, exclaimed in Irish too, " Now 
I can understand what has long puzzled me. I was present at the exe- 
cution of a big man in Sligo, for robbing Mr. Gilmore. When he was 
cast out the rope broke, and he fell to the ground. His leg was broken : 
and the priest hastened down to him, and moving off the soldiers from 
him, he anointed him, saying, in my hearing, ' Thank God, I can now 
do here for you what I could not do there above.' This amazed me 
above any thing, why it was that he could not do it above as well as 
below ! I have often thought of it since, but never could once think 
of the reason of it ; but now I see it most clearly, that not for the sick 
Boul, but for the sick body, it was intended. And I am thankful !" 

Another, in Maryborough prison, while visiting the prisoners, s»id to 
me, " Why don't you, sir, believe the Bible 1 St. James says, ' J-i* 



68 EXTREME UNCTION 

Christ ordained' it ! ! ! Now, sir, can it be possible you 
will still continue in this ruinous- delusion yourself, and 
lead and keep others in it, or are you not afraid of God so 
to do? 

And because the council of Florence under Pope Euge- 
nius, and that of Trent by Julius III. and Pius IV., have 
about two hundred and fifty or three hundred years ago de- 
creed to make such sacrament, must we therefore receive 
it as the ordinance of our God ? must we believe a lie ? 
God forbid. They impiously curse all who reject it. God 
and his apostles curse all who dare teach or receive it, or 
any other new doctrine. Whose curse then should we 
dread ? 

It is probable you may now say, What harm can it do ? 
Will not those who believe in it be more earnest to have 
their clergy by them in that hour of distress, to admonish 
and comfort them ? 

I answer, I have no objection dying persons should have 
their clergy or other pious persons by them in that awful 
hour, to comfort and encourage them, but all this they 
might have without any decoy or deception. But when 
oil is brought to them as a sacrament ordained by our Lord 
Christ, when it was not, but is a false sacrament, then I 
conceive there is incalculable harm in it to both clergy and 
people. 

To the clergy, by obliging, nay swearing them, when 
taking orders or prefer3ient,* to believe a falsehood, and 

anointed by the clergy,' &c., and you don't mind him." " But I do 
mind him," I replied, " but you mistake him ! His anointing was not 
a sacrament for the soul, but was used for a miraculous healing of a 
sick body. And as a proof, if two in this prison be to die for the same 
crime to-morrow, and that one of them should take very ill in body, the 
priest will anoint him, but not the other, though his soul is as ill as the 
other's is," *' You are quite astray, sir; he will anoint them both, the 
one as soon as the other." " You don't know your religion yet," said I. 
*' But I will soon prove to you I do," answered he, and ran for his book, 
which he opened on the place, and found I was correct, that none can 
be anointed except he be in danger of death by bodily sickness, he ex- 
claimed, "I am wrong ! we are all wrong! Not a man in a thousand 
uf us knows this, and all should know it. Now I see how the matter 
is, I see it all." 

* There are priests who deny any such oath to exist. Their creed 
(see p. 30,) however, proves it. But, Do they teach these things, which 
we say they are sworn to t«ach 1 They do ] Then what is the difler- 



NO SACRAMENT. 69 

to teach it all their days ; namely, " that Christ instituted 
a sacrament,'''' which he did not ; and that it is necessary 
to salvation, when ye are obliged to allow it is not, as I 
have fully proved, thus destroying yourselves at the very 
threshold. Now if they who, after being warned, believe 
a lie and teach it, shall be all damned, as saith the apostle,* 
what greater mischief then could befall the clergy? 

To the people it is destructive, as by it they are led into 
a fatal delusion, in thinking it a sacrament ordained by 
Christ for their eternal good, when it was not; and expect- 
ing that there is in it some wonderful virtue, (Jirmissimum 
quoddam praesidiwn,) "a most strong defence and safeguard 
against all devils at death's approach, remissiont of any sins 
that might have remained till then, ease in sickness, and a 
full purifying of the soul for glory," as ye tell them ; I say, 
thinking that all those great and wonderful virtues are in it, 
and are for them in tliat last hour, when it is all false. Thus 
are they lulled into false security, and are decoyed into the 
snare of the enemy of souls, to their ruin. 

And that they have these wonderful expectations from 
this pretended sacrament is manifest ; first, from the eager- 
ness with which they seek for the priest, to minister it to 
the dying, for were it at midnight, or in places the most 
difficult of access, he must be sought out and brought thi- 
ther to lay on this seal of Christ, as they term it, before the 
soul departs. But the priest sometimes will not go. Well 
indeed may he laugh in his sleeve at their credulity ; for if 
he possess any information he must know it is but a pious 
fraud; and, secondly, it is further evident from their great 
diligence to get at and prevail on Protestants who live 
among them, when in danger of death, now at length to 
send for the priest to get this sure badge of salvation, this 
divine anointing, assuring them and affirming, they cannot 
be saved without it, or out of the church, for that St. James 
(whom they wholly mistake) has commanded it. And 

encel If the doctrines be of God, what harm to vow, nay to swear to 
teach them ; but if false, to teach them, whether sworn or not, to do so, 
is wickedness. 

* 2Thess. ii. 11, 12. 

f Cujus unctio deHcta si quae sint adhuc expianda ac peccati reliquias, 
abslergit, segroti animara alleviat et confirmat. Trent, sess. 14, cap. 2 
Alas ' what deliberate falsehood is here ! 



70 EXTREME UNCTION 

mightily indeed do they rejoice if they can prevail willi 
them ; and this they too often do, especially with the 
ignorant and lower orders of Protestants. I am sure there 
are more converts made thus to popery in this kingdom, by 
the people and this delusion, than by all the other efforts of 
the clergy put together. However such deceptions may 
for a season serve temporal purposes, O what will be the 
end ? 

Thus did Simon Magus, who by his artifices and sorce- 
ries, for a long time, persuaded the people of Samaria, that 
he was some great one, and had the great power of God, 
to whom they all, from the least to the greatest, gave heed ; 
they believed him and were thus deceived, till at length the 
apostles came and told the truth, and disabused them. Acts 
viii. 9 — 11. Surely this infallibility must be this said 
Simon's son ; and he must be blind, indeed, who does not 
see the affinity. Now, if a witness convicted of lies be 
turned down, as a false witness, and the cause he came to 
support be lost; infallibility, then, the so much boasted 
foundation and supporter of the church of Rome exclu- 
sively, being already convicted of deception, is therefore a 
false infallibility, a false witness, and must be turned down 
also ; and that church it was called to support must sink 
with it ; prevent it who can. But this conclusion is un- 
avoidable, therefore its stroke is mortal, and the building 
thereon falls to rise no more. 

Suppose a priest to come to any sick man, to anoint him, 
and that he should ask, "Please your reverence, was it 
Christ himself instituted the extreme uncdon, and what is 
the proof?" The proof lies upon you, the minister of it, 
that he did appoint it. Now if 300 bishops assembled in 
council, were not able to find out any words of Chrisfs 
institution for it, and had at length to confess he only 
hinted at it, which hint itself it seems is not to be found ! ! 
how, then, can you attempt to prove it, much less to mi- 
nister it ? 

Secondly. Can you be certain with the certainty of 
faith, that the oil with which you are about to anoint me is 
rightly consecrated, and is free of every defect, in the 
matter, form, minister, and intention ? that the matter is 
pure oil of olives, that the words of consecration were of 
Divine appointment, and have been truly and fully pro- 



NO SACRAMENT. 71 

nounced ? that the bishop when he breathed on the oil, and 
said, ''Accipe spiritum sanctum,'''' " O oil, receive the Holy 
Ghost," did intend, and indeed believe it possible to endue 
the oil with divine virtue, and did really infuse the Holy 
Spirit into it? And that tho bishop who consecrated it was 
a true bishop ; that no defect was in his ordination ; or that 
ho who ordained him was qualified so to do, having no de- 
fect in his own baptism, or ordination, or intention ; and so 
backwards, ad infinitum? Otherwise ye allow the ordina- 
tion is null, and his consecration void ; and then all is de- 
ception and ruin to men's souls. 

Thirdly. Are you certain that in your present office you 
are a lawful and true priest? Gabriel Biel affirms,* "No 
priest that celebrateth can know evidendy, whether he be a 
priest ; because he cannot know evidently, whether he be 
baptized or lawfully ordained.^'' And Cardinal Bellarmine 
tells us why, "Because, it depends upon the intention of 
the minister, and none can see another man's intention.V 
And surely the council of Trent, sess. 7, can. 11, and our 
missal assert the same, " That without due intention in the 
minister, all is void !" all is lost! Now, rev. sir, tell me, 
are you sure of all this ? And how can you ? If not, then 
you cannot know but you are about being guilty of sacrilege 
as to yourself, and also of giving me a false sacrament. Me- 
thinks, then, you should no more venture to minister it 
than I to receive it. And lastly, doth not our Lord con- 
demn the vain doctrines and inventions of men ; and more 
still such as tell lies of him, saying, He ordained this or the 
other sacrament or doctrine, which he did not? Do not he 
and his apostles declare they shall be accursed who do such 
things ? 

If the ministers, then, of such new sacrament or doctrine 
be thus accursed, which I think should make them tremble, 
so must the receivers too; even as our Lord hath said, "If 
the Wind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the ditch;" 
therefore I dare not receive this doctrine, — this extreme 
unction, which is evidendy an invention of men, lest I incur 

* " Nullus celebrans, potest evidenter scire, se esse sacerdotem, quia 
non potest evidentur scire se fuisse baptizatum, aut legitime ordinatum." 
Gab. Biel, in Epit. Can. Missas. 

I " Sacramentum, non conficiatur sine intentione ministri, et inten* 
lionem alterius nemo videre possit." Iiib. Just, cap S. 



/2 EXTREME UNCTION 

(he displeasure of Christ. I can plead ignorance no longer. 
A.dded to this, the apostle saith, 2 John 9, 10, 11, "If there 
come any unto you, and bring not this (Christ's) doctrine, 
receive him not into your house, neither bid him God- 
speed, for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of 
his evil deedsJ'^ So you see, in order to be safe, we must 
abide in the old doctrine. Should I join with you, reverend 
sir, and receive this extreme unction, this new sacrament, 
I should then be partaker of your evil deeds. And St. 
Paul tells us we must believe the truth only, and not un- 
righteous or fabulous things, lest "God should send us 
strong delusion to believe a lie, to our damnation." 2 Thess. 
ii. 10—12. 

Let me now ask you, sir, were you and all your frater- 
nity, even the very pope, sure you would be thus interro- 
gated, what would you do, what could you say ? Would 
you venture to approach any such intelligent persons with 
your extreme unction, or with any other of your matters, 
for which you have no proof? Such inquiries would be 
as fatal to you all as David's stone was to Goliath of Gath 
and his hosts. Are these, think you, "trifling and insig- 
nificant questions, the effect of derangement, and not worth 
your notice ?" If they are not — if they cannot be answered, 
the ruin of your church must follow, except ye cease from 
these horrible superstitions and false dogmas. 

Perhaps you will think. Why does this man so press 
me, so hard pursue me through every lane, and on this 
point so particularly? I answer, I do so, not to injure 
you, sir, but to destroy your new gospel — your infallibility, 
which teacheth this false doctrine ; for if it be destroyed in 
tliis one point, which I think is now done beyond the pos- 
sibility of contradiction, it is destroyed altogether. And 
thus the foundation of the whole Babel building is entirely 
overthrown, even as a lighted match, put to a train at any 
one part of a mined fortress, in an instant blows up the 
whole M^th a dreadful overthrow. Now your infallible 
council teacheth, (sess. 7, can. 1,) "If any one shall say 
that these sacraments of the new law have not been all 
instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, or that they are more 
or fewer than seven, let him be accursed."* 

* Si quis dixerit, sacramenta novs legis non fuisse omnia a Jesu 



NO SACRAMENT. 73 

But extreme unction, one of these seven, is in the first 
instance, by many irresistible arguments, now taken out of 
your hands, and overthrown as a false sacrament; second, 
it has been just proved, that holy orders and it, and purga- 
tory and it, necessarily destroy each other; third, that the 
ancient fathers, and some of your own most learned divines, 
too, deny any sacraments to be of divine institution, or of 
the new law, or to have been in the ancient church, save 
two only — baptism and the eucharist ; and, lastly, that all 
this is true, is confirmed, at this moment, by the gospel : 
hence this canon is palpably false ; and the council that 
decreed it — that decreed " seven sacraments of the new law 
were instituted by Christ, (being five too many,) and swore 
her clergy to believe and teach this forever: I say this coun- 
cil, being thus guilty of daringly belying Christ, destroying 
her clergy, and deceiving mankind, was therefore a most 
false council, and such of necessity was her infallibility 
also. But if this council, and the church of Rome, which 
teacheth the very same sacraments and doctrines at this 
hour, be one and the same church, is it not undeniably con- 
sequent that she is of exactly the same character, and is by 
no means the spouse of Christ, but is a most fallacious and 
dangerous church ? 

Now, that a church thus bound on oath to teach fictitious 
sacraments and false dogmas too, cannot be the church of 
God, is not only the voice of common sense and of revela- 
tion, but is openly confessed by able advocates of the 
church of Rome. I shall just mention one, a writer of 
celebrity. Dr. Manning. His words are, "The church of 
Christ can only be that which believes wholly and entirely 
the doctrine that was taught by Christ, and delivered by his 
apostles. That church that would teach any one point of 
doctrine contrary to the revealed word of God, and there- 
fore heresy, would not be the chaste spouse of Christ, bu* 
an harlot, and the school of Satan, and the gates of hell 
would prevail against her." — "Short Method with Pro 

TESTANTS," p. 29, &C. 

1. So then it is an undeniable fact, that the church ol 
Rome teacheth, and hath bound her clergy on oath to 

Christo, Domino nostro, instituta ; aut esse plura vel pauciora quam 
septem, viz. baptismum, — extremam unctionem, &c., — anathema sit 
Con. Trid. sess. 7, can. 1. 

7 



74 EXTREME UXCTION 

teach sacraments and doctrines never taught by Christ, 
nay, actually opposed to him and his gospel ; and her Doc- 
tor thus owns, (but for what end he best knew,) "that the 
church that is thus guilty is not the church of Christ, but 
an harlot, the very school of Satan, and the gate to hell." 
2. The teachers of such a church, and of doctrines thus 
opposed to the Lord and his gospel are pronounced by the 
Holy Ghost "accursed." Gal. i. 8. 3. They Avho wilfully 
follow such teachers must "fall into the gulf," as saith 
Christ. The same saith St. Ignatius, " That wretch who 
by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, which 
Jesus Christ sealed with his precious blood, shall descend 
into fire unquenchable, and they also who hear him," ad 
Ephes. With all this before his eyes, what should every 
candid man in the church of Rome, who regards his eternal 
salvation more than his prejudices, now think of himself, 
or resolve to do, and promptly do ? Ought not all such be 
alarmed, and listen instandy to the voice of the Lord, ear- 
nestly and pathetically crying to them, "Go out of her, my 
people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you 
receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto 
heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities." 
Apoc. xviii. 4, 5, Rhemish. This expression, "her sins 
have reached unto heaven,'''' is remarkable. But what sins 
could a church possibly commit greater than to swear her 
clergy to teach the people sacraments and doctrines never 
taught by Christ or his apostles ? and which, therefore, 
striking at his very throne and his people's salvation, are 
emphatically said "to reach unto heaven!"' This calls for 
deep consideration, and also much prayer to God for grace 
and guidance ! 

Were parents to know these monstrous and impious 
errors, and that ye are bound, nay, sworn to believe and 
teach them all your days, would they ever after this think 
of preparing their offspring to be clergy in your church ? 
Or if the young men themselves were timely apprised of 
them, would they, upon any account, join your church ? 
No, they would flee terrified ; and so would there be a 
speedy end of your colleges, monasteries, nunneries, and 
church together. Thus will it most assuredly be. 

Permit me now, sir, to remind you of your promises 
and invitation. To preserve your character as a man of 



NO SACRAMENT. 75 

truth, and to avoid the charge of vain boasting, you are 
absolutely bound to give a fair answer to my questions, or 
make d. public recantation of your present faith; otherwise 
you involve yourself, in the eyes of all men, in the charge 
of deliberate deception. 

When Goliath of Gath (1 Sam. xvii.) defied the armies 
of Israel, David cried out, "Who is this uncircumcised 
Philistine that defieth the armies of the living God?" 
Then trusting in his God, with his sling and stone he came 
forward, nay, ran to meet this boasting and colossal gladia- 
tor, who, at the head of his hosts, and puffed up with his 
self-importance, relying on the mightiness of his fancied 
and invincible strength, the irresistibility of his ponderous 
and massy weapons, and the impenetrability of his com- 
plete armour, morning and evening for forty days present- 
ing himself, challenged, and cried aloud, "I defy the armies 
of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight to- 
gether." j^nd when at length he spied David, with his 
little sling and stones, running towards him, to him he said, 
despising him, "Am I a dog, that thou comest thus? Come 
to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and 
unto the beasts of the field." 

Little did this haughty fool know that they were the 
armies of the living God he was thus defying; and less 
again did he or his multitudes suppose that so trifling an 
instrument would prevail against him ; that that little stone 
from David's sling would so soon put him to silence for- 
ever, nay, throw him on his face a dead man ; or that his 
own sword should cut off" his own head, and all his army 
be that very day routed ! — But God humbleth the proud ! 

But his challenge was modesty itself compared with yours 
He called only for one champion — you come running from 
Rome, clothed in the consciousness of your invincibility, 
and in the complete armour of your impenetrable infalli' 
bilityU you throw dov/n the gauntlet! and by the aid of 
your army (your friends) who scattered your books and 
'your challenge, you call on the two worlds, Europe and 
America ! on all the ministers, to come to combat, to come 
with all the strength they could possibly collect, and all the 
arguments of the sacred dead, even of all those champions 
of protestantcy, (that is, of gospel Christianity,) who have 
aver written in its behalf. Tremendous challenge ! What 



76 EXTREME UXCTION 

was Goliath's to it? But as David, nothing frightened, ran 
to meet Goliath, so, sir, I come to you, humbly trusting, 
not in myself, who am but mere weakness and insignifi- 
cance, but in the living God, and armed with simple, art- 
less, mighty truth. 

And now allow me to return your own words to you : 
" I stand forth," in all my weakness, not for this or the other 
system or party, but in the defence of the genuine and in- 
fallible gospel of the God of heaven, even the genuine 
religion of Christianity, as taught by the blessed Jesus and 
his apostles, and by their real followers in every age, and 
also by all true Protestant teachers to this day, as it stands 
on record in the Holy Scriptures, the true record of God, 
and in the concordant writings of these holy men. 

I not only thus publicly take up your bold and wanton 
challenge, but I conjure and entreat you and all the priests, 
if ye have real love for souls, which you so repeatedly de- 
clare you have, to come forward and answer my questions, 
that the people's eyes, who are kept in darkness, in ten- 
fold nig-Jit, may be opened to the light; and spare not to 
bring all the arguments that Bossuet, Challoner, and all the 
other champions for popery ever used in its behalf: you 
will want them all, for I have many questions to ask. 1 
now, therefore, hope you will feel yourself obliged to an- 
swer: or, like slain Goliath, sink into the silence of death, 
never to open your mouth more. 

To conclude, I again entreat you to consider well all I 
have said, as you are to account to that Judge in that awful 
day ; and now at length turn from this delusive mfallibility 
to that gospel which alone is the best guide, (as Pope Gan- 
genelli himself admits. Up. 40,) and which teacheth neither 
error nor contradictions, but leads to safety and peace in 
the way everlasting all such as cleave to it. 

"Vive, vale, si quid novisti rectius istis, 
Candidas imperti : si non, his utere mecum." 

Vour friend and servant in the Lord Jesus 

GIDEON OUSELEY, 

IRISH MISSIONARY. 



LETTER IL 



INFALLIBILITY DESTROYED; 



A^'D THE 



CHURCH OF ROME OVERTURNED. 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Rev. Sir,— When I wrote to you last, I mentioned that 
your arguments in defence of your church, those on infalli- 
bility and transubstantiation especially, were to me and 
every calm observer both superficial and inconclusive ; 
which, it seems, so pained you, that (as you tell me in 
your letter) you appealed to your congregation to judge 
whether they were so or not. But had you brought forward 
my arguments, and read them likewise, then it might be said 
you did indeed give them an opportunity of judging. 

Now as to this infallibility. You declare, "it is not in 
the pope," (for if it were, what need then of a council?) 
" nor is it in a council, in the whole of the bishops together," 
(for if it were, what need then of a pope?) "but it is in the 
majority of the bishops united with their head the pope." 
"Our church," (say you,) "by virtue of her infallibility, to 
which she alone has an exclusive title, claims a divine right 
to regulate the faith of all Christians. This is our funda- 
mental tenet, our stronghold ; if this be solid, the plain 
consequence is, that every Christian is bound to submit his 
conscience to her decisions, and to receive her interpretatior. 
of Scriptures. And until this our foundation be overturned 
all attempts to show the usurpations of our church are ex- 
tremely ridiculous ; but when it is proved we are deceived 
in this, when this our strons:hold is once destroyed, then, 
^7* 77 



78 I^^FALLIBILITY 

indeed, all our pretensions fall at once to the ground ; then 
only may the Scriptures be pleaded for as the only rule of 
faith, and the independency of conscience be established." 
Cath. Cont. p. 64, 117, 118. 

Before I proceed to reply, suffer me to premise a few 
propositions. 

1st. We believe there is a God possessed of all possible 
perfections, who never maketh that to be false which is in 
itself true, or that to be true which is in itself false. To 
deny this, would be to say, that he could destroy his own 
attributes, his truth especially, — to assert which would be 
blasphemy. 

2dly. That he requireth of his rational creatures nothing 
that is impossible, but things rational and possible. To 
deny this, would be to say, he is cruel and unjust, (for to 
require any one impossibility is the same as to require all ;) 
and, as it would destroy his justice and mercy, would be 
blasphemy. 

3dly. Of those whom he hath favoured with a divine 
revelation of his ivill, such as Jews and Christians, he re- 
quireth that they should be diligent, and in the use of every 
prudential means labour to know it, and conscientiously 
conform themselves to the same, according to their several 
abilities. Thus acting, they are saved. But to neglect this, 
to please any man or indulge their own corrupt hearts, is at 
their own peril and self-condemnation. Now all who with 
humble attention and prayer, read and believe the law of 
God by Moses, will thereby, through the agency of the 
Divine Spirit, be soon brought to know, that, because of 
sin, they are under the curse, and shall feel a troubled 
heart, godly sorrow, and a salutary self-despair. To drive 
them thus to Christ, is the principal use of the law. To 
the want of these effects, through ignorance of the spiritu- 
ality of the law and unbelief, must chiefly be attributed all 
that profaneness, formality, and needless schisms which are 
too often found among Christians. But the gospel instruct- 
etli the heavy-laden and self-despairing sinner concerning 
Christ, and also to look up to the Father of mercies for the 
aid of the Divine Spirit, to enable him to believe in Him with 
a heart unto righteousness, which, when done, he is instantly 
justified by faith; the curse, guilt, and grief pass away; and 
the peace of God, through him, succeeds, and sweetly over- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITr. 79 

flows and comforts the soul I And the love of God being 
shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, his joy is then 
unspeakable ! Such are born again ! and their misery is 
turned into felicity, which will never forsake ihem so long 
as they walk obediently, even till they arrive in heaven. 

4thly. In thus acting according to God's holy word, al- 
though they should happen to differ in their views of reve- 
lation on some minor points, yet provided it be not wilful, 
but perhaps through incapacity or a difference in mental 
powers, &;c., it is not imputable, it is not culpable. To 
deny this, would be to deny the second proposition, and 
would be blasphemy. 

5thly. Of all those to whom he hath not vouchsafed an 
immediate revelation of his will, he only requires diligent 
attention to the abilities they have — to reason and conscience, 
and every the best light they can attain according to their 
circumstances. Thus, they are in their degree safe. To 
deny this, or any of these propositions, would be to blas- 
pheme, because it would be saying, God requireth impos- 
sibilities. 

Thus every truly sincere follower of Christ, every con- 
scientious Christian, however he may happen to differ from 
another, must be saved. Thus the nations of the world 
also, it is evident, are through mercy not excluded ; nay, 
are accepted. Acts x. 35. Rom. ii. 10, 11 ; x. 12. Thus, 
none in the world can be lost or damned, but he who 
through wilful neglect or wilful sin damns himself. 

Had Christians of all denominations but viewed the sub- 
ject of religion thus, and hearkened to the counsel of him 
who said, '■^ Love one another,''^ they would not, upon 
every little difference of opinion, have been so ready to 
doom each other to the devil, nor have filled the world with 
their disgraceful and pernicious quarrels ; but would have 
walked in amity, kindness, and sweet forbearance one with 
another, and thus ornamented the gospel of God. 

But the church of Rome, choosing unhappily quite an- 
clher way than the gospel, fixes upon a strange guide 
indeed, even infallibility , which she claims exclusively ; 
and by which, with her other peculiar doctrmes, such as 
transubstantiation, &c. &c., she, through the weakness ol 
deluded princes, by the Inquisition, that engine of mischief 
to man, and by many other evil arts, hath from age to agfl 



so INFALLIBILITY 

filled the world with massacres, miseries, destruction, and 
wo ! O what a fearful gospel is this infallibility I 

Now it is very manifest to the eye of sober reason, that 
these her peculiar doctrines, the result of great talents, and 
of much labour and perseverance, were all framed to exalt 
and enrich the clergy, and bring the people, from the prince 
to the peasant, all, into the most abject submission to them. 
By infallibility, they persuaded them, " they alone had the 
true and safe church, out of which all must be damned; 
they alone had a right to interpret scripture, and regulate 
the faith of all Christians." By transubstantiation, they 
would show forth the power and honour they had received 
from Christ, even to make himself on their altars, and in 
this, to be above angels, and even the virgin Mary: "for 
unto them was it not granted, but unto the hierarchy of the 
church," as saith Gabriel Biel, in his 4th Lesson on the 
Canon of the Mass. And by the public worship given to 
their host or wafer, even the same given to God! they 
confirmed this idea of their very wonderful power. By 
penances, auricular confession, and absolution, they came 
at the people's secrets, even of the most indelicate nature, 
with their circumstances, which, by the decree of the coun- 
cil of Trent, they were obliged to confess ; and then they 
must submit to the penances laid on them, at the will of the 
clergy, else they could have no absolution, nor, therefore, 
salvation. By purgatory, indulgences, and masses for the 
dead, they would show their power with God in the other 
w^orld as well as in this, and thus made gain of the people 
in the other world also. By holydays, which they them- 
selves made, in flat opposition to God, who said, ^'Six days 
shalt thou labour and do all thy ivork;'''' by forbidding 
the marriage of relatives not forbidden in Scripture, and 
many other such things, they raised themselves thus above 
the Scriptures, and taught the people to come to them most 
submissively, to ask leave to do what God had never for- 
bidden. Yes, to be permitted to work on the holyday, or 
\o eat flesh in Lent, or be married to some relative, for which 
tliey must by all means pay, and smartly too! Never was 
any people more injured. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 81 



THE DOCTRINE OF INTENTION. 

But of all the doctrines calculated to favour them most, 
and raise them to their highest wish, that of the doctrine of 
intention^ appears foremost. Except the priest possessed 
intention in his consecration, there could be no sacrament, 
it would be null : then, though apparently married, bap- 
tized, &c. &c., yet would they nevertheless be unmarried, 
tmbaptized, &c. &c., and so must live in a state of fornica- 
tion and heathenism ; their penances, confessions, and abso- 
lutions could be of no avail ! and the adoration of the mass 
would become wicked idolatry ! and thus would they all, 
at the will of the priest, be damned together. 

To prevent all which evils, seeing their salvation must 
hang solely upon this intention in the priest, they must feel 
it necessary ever to be attentive to him, and never, upon 
any account, vex him, that he might always have and exert 
this intention. 

That the priests do expect this trembling attention and 
abject submission from their flocks, is a fact that meets the 
eye of daily observation ! And so far from discouraging 
this baseness of mind, this degrading superstition, they (the 
priests) promote it, from tender years up to gray hairs, as 
much as possible ; so that the people, who fear so little to 
violate the laws of God, yet look up with fear and awe to 
them, as if they were gods upon earth, often saying, " Who 
has such virtue as the priest?" '■^ Se far innoid losa Croisda 
aguinn er a taliv e," — "He is in the place of Jesus Christ 
to us on earth." 

This was the very error of the Jews, who hated and 

* The cAJfos- of the Treis^t councii. os ixtentiow. — "Si quis 
dixerit in rninistris dum sacraraenta conficiunt, et conferunt, non requiri 
infentionem, saltern faciendi quod ecclesia facit, anathema sit." " If 
any man shall say, that in the minister, while consecrating and minis- 
tering the sacraments, intentmi is not required, of doing what the church 
doth, let him be accursed." Con. Trid. sess. 7, c. 11. 

" Neque potest quis," &c. " No man can be certain, by the cer- 
tainty of faith,* that he receives a true sacrament; because it depends on 
the intention of the minister ; and none can see another man's intention." 
Bellar. lib. 8, c. de Justific. 

♦' NuUus celebrans," &c., saith G. Biel. " No officiating minister can 
know certainly that he is a priest ; for he cannot evidently know if ho 
be baptized, or whether he be lawfully ordained." Epit. Can. Miss 



82 INFALLIBILITY 

rejected Christ and his gospel, and thus cleaved to the 
priests and their superstitions, till God's wrath came on 
them to the full ! 

While this clergy contemplated the great benefits whicli 
thus accrued to them from this doctrine of intention, even 
the full subjugation of the people, and through the blind- 
ness of their hearts, to which it seems God gave them up 
in just judgment for their daring conduct and Babel build- 
ing, were delighted v/ith the prospect before them, little 
did they think or foresee they were preparing a rod terribly 
to scourge themselves, a complete instrument of their own 
undoing. For while this doctrine exalts them thus to the 
summit of their desires, it is but for a moment, it is but to 
precipitate them headlong into utter annihilation ! For if, 
by the want of intention in them Mdien they ministered, 
the people were destroyed, so, by the want of the like in- 
tention in those who baptized and ordained themselves, 
must themselves be destroyed. So that now, if they have 
not been righdy baptized and ordained by such as were 
rightly qualified and had right intention, and they again by 
other such persons, and so on back to the very apostles, (a 
thing impossible,) they have no true baptism nor ordination 
at all ; and this operating on the whole body of the clergy, 
must necessarily exterminate them all. 

For if by this doctrine the people are brought into such 
perplexities that it is impossible for them to know whether 
their clergymen be lawful or be Christians at all, or whether 
themselves be Christians or have received any true sacra- 
ment, (as Bellarmine confesses,) or whether what the)^ do 
receive, being false sacraments, are not hastening their dam- 
nation ; so also are the priests, from the highest to the 
lowest of them, unavoidably plunged into the same abyss 
of uncertainty and misery; because it is impossible for them 
to know whether they be priests as above noticed, and as 
Crabriel Biel (one of them) is obliged to allow; or whether 
all their services be not so many sacrileges, hastening their 
own destruction and that of their people ! 

Thus by this famous canon of intention, found in the 
council of Florence and in that of Trent — by this conspi- 
cuous child of the infallibility, is the entire papal church, 
clergy, people, with all the high pretensions of the papacy, 
precipitated into instant ruin, and swallowed up as in a 



AN IMPOSSIBILITF. 83 

moment. Thus corruption terminates in its own ruin!! 
Should they deny this canon, its existence would confront 
them ; if they deny its power, they destroy the infallibility; 
if they confess it, they unpriest themselves. Do what they 
will with it, it hangs upon them, it ruins them, they cannot 
escape it ! This conclusion is irresistible ! 

Now as by these false and fraudful doctrines the people 
have been the trembling slaves and dupes of the papal 
clergy, so, by the simple inquiry of the people, as soon as 
they shall rouse to it, shall the whole body of the former fall 
into instant annihilation ! 

Let any inquirer approach the next priest or bishop, and 
ask him, "Do you allow there is a canon insisting upon the 
necessity of intention in the ministering clergyman in order 
to the integrity of a sacrament ?" If he says, " There is no 
such canon," he instantly is confronted by the canon itself, 
as already stated, and by the rubrick of his missal ; but if 
he admit it, and yet says, "It is frivolous and is not bind- 
ing," then he destroys his own foundation, and ruins him- 
self; for if the canon be foolish and false, then the infalli- 
bility which in two councils decreed it was foolish and false, 
and so drops into annihilation; and the church founded on 
it, which for three centuries back taught it, was foolish and 
false also, and so falls headlong with it. But if he allow 
there is such a canon, then he is iavolved in immediate 
ruin, for the next question will be, "How can you possi- 
bly know whether you are a priest ? or whether you are a 
Christian at all ?" At this question he must be startled and 
amazed ! He must own, according to his religion, it is a 
thing impossible to be known, whether he has been truly 
ordained, or truly baptized, or is a true clergyman! 

And, sir, if you don't know, and if none of you know, 
how alarming must be the situation of us all, to whom you 
have been ministering, not knowing but we have been re- 
ceiving /tt/.se sacraments all our lives! How came you 
then to assume the office, and venture to minister in holy 
things, and thus bring destruction upon yourselves, on us, 
and our little ones? Ye tell us your infallibility is a safe 
guide to heaven : if so, why does it not lead yourselves 
out of these difficulties which so press you, and defend you 
and us from the risk of that damnation which is consequent 
on receiving false sacraments, and of worshipping a false 



84 INFALLIBILITr 

host. And if it will give no help, no relief to you or us, 
it is good for nothing ; how then can it be a sure guide to 
heaven, or be from Christ? 

Should a physician, or a body of them, confess, " We 
cannot possibly know that we are true physicians, or that 
our prescriptions will not kill, and our medicines poison," 
who after this could be so mad as to employ and pay them? 
But ye confess ye are not sure but your sacraments are 
sacrilegious and false, consequently damnable. The appli- 
cation is obvious: we must therefore bid you farewell, nor 
suffer ourselves or little ones to be longer deceived. In- 
quiry thus spreading through the land, nay, through the 
world, and being pressed upon the papal clergy, they could 
not stand before it — they must fly and hide themselves. 

Thus would they be overthrown to a man, from the pope 
on his throne to the lowest ecclesiastic. Thus must the 
whole papal church with all its apparatus go into ruins at 
once, (as I have said,) even as the mill-stone which the 
mighty angel cast into the flood: so must Babylon sink to 
rise no more again forever ! ! Thus would the world be 
rid, as in a moment, of this great mother and arrogant mis- 
tress of all churches, this prolific parent of deceits and arti- 
fices, that has filled the nations for so many ages with per- 
nicious superstitions, grievous contentions, confusion, into- 
lerance, and blood ! Who that knows history can deny this ? 

And now, methinks, the whole ingenidus edifice of the 
papal building, put together with such care and industry for 
so many ages, and of which its partisans have so mightily 
boasted, crying out, "What church is like unto it, or can 
compare with it?" may be likened to a curious puzzling- 
stick, out of which some unsuspected hand pulls the little 
key peg, and lo ! instantly it falls to pieces. 

To behold these men who, before the fatal touch of in- 
quiry had reached them, appeared even as gods, took to 
themselves such hauteur and greatness, and fancied them- 
selves as an order above mortals ; yes, in dignity of office 
'abovr, kings and emperors, nay, the angels, and the virgin 
Mary, the very queen of heaven herself," as they tell us: 
to see these in an instant precipitated from all this height 
into their own nothingness, their borrowed plumes pulled 
off, their infallibility, that strong rock of their majestic 
church, crumbled to dust under their feet in a labyrinth of 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 85 

difficulties, degraded beneath rationals, and finding them- 
selves, after all, to be but poor deceived deceivers, and shrink- 
ing from the dreaded touch of inquiry? (sad reverse!) 1 
say, to see all this, not only proves the truth of my asser- 
tion or demonstration, but also confirms the words of in- 
spiration, "How are the mighty fallen!" 

From this view of things, the following natural observa- 
tions force themselves upon us : 1st. That any church, thus 
liable to be pulled down by the hand of inquiry, and to 
crumble under the rays of light which are now so multi- 
plying on the earth, must, in order to preserve herself from 
such impending ruin, either radically and quickly reform 
herself, and humbly follow the simple light of reason, con- 
science, and revelation, even as stated in my jive proposi- 
tions ; or otherwise, to keep off" this dreaded light and in- 
quiry, she must necessarily be intolerant and persecuting, 
when practicable — when not restrained by the strong arm 
of power. To give power to such a church, is to overthrow 
truths and destroy the rights of mankind. It would be just 
the folly of a fond parent, putting weapons into the hands 
of a wickedly disposed, mischievous boy, to destroy per- 
liaps himself and his family : for, in proportion to her in- 
crease of power and corruption on the one hand, and of 
light and inquiry on the other, so must the greatness of the 
struggle and confusion be; for light and darkness can never 
agree. This conclusion is firm, and this observation is 
perfectly applicable, and should never be lost sight of. A 
church that is sworn to teach till deaths doctrines flatly op- 
posed to that gospel which she knows and even swears to 
be God's truth, and that is sworn to root out, as soon as 
practicable, all who refuse to do as she does, should never 
get the rod in her hand, — should never, by any means, get 
power to do her will. 

2. From the year 606, in which the papal church first 
got power from the Emperor Phocas over all other churches, 
that she has been of a persecuting spirit, in every age, to 
this day, is a fact that cannot be denied by any who consult 
the page of history. Here stand recorded her horrible 
violences against all such as, preferring God's pure faith to 
human corruptions, refused to be subject to her or her pope; 
and her unceasing eff'orts to extirpate them as heretics, by 
procuring royal edicts against them, making all magistrates, 
8 



S6 INFALLIBILITY 

and even crowned heads,* to take an oath to root them out, 
(which is further evident by that taken in the reign of 
Henry V. in England, in 1414, when "it was made death 
and loss of property to read the Bible in English, or be a 
heretic ;" and by the bloody statute and six articles of 
Henry VHI., which made it burning to speak or write 
against transubstantiation, &c. ;) her keeping the Bible 
from the people ; her bloody Inquisition, where she could 
have it, to deter the people from inquiry, &c. &c.t I say, 
these are facts, and such evidences of her true character as 
cannot be denied, nor should be concealed. And it is to be 
deplored that she is unchanged ; that this is too much her 
spirit still, as is obvious by the Spaniards so lately refusing 
Christian burial to Sir John Moore, the English general, 
who was slain in their own defence, because he was a Pro- 
testant ; by their refusing any religion to be in the kingdom 
but the papal ; and by the strong opposition of the pope's 
nuncio to, and his grievous lamentation for the abolition 
of the Inquisition by the Cortes, (anno 1813,) which, as he 
said, " pained his very heart." And lastly, by the constant 
opposition of the Romish clergy, to this day, to all gospel 
preachers, and to any of their people hearing them, or hear- 
ing or reading any religious books but their own; all which 
go to prove that persecution is still her motto. 

But if every one would fly from all such intolerant 
churches, as indeed they should, soon would persecution 
expire ; for then should the pastors, rather than lose their 
flocks, cease their violences, and admit free inquiry after 
truth ; and thus would all soon be peace, harmony, and 
love. Then should we have, as it were, a heaven on earth 
below. 

3d. As every persecuting system, of whatever name, is 
manifestly false, and ought to fall, and, by the increase of 
light and inquiry, and by the judgments of God, must fall ; 
shall it not strengthen our faith and love to Him, and in- 
crease our veneration for tlie page of revelation, when we 
And it there written, " That as a millstone is cast into the 
sea, thus with great violence, must Babylon be thrown 

* See the 3(1 can. 4 th council of Lateran. 

I siee that inimitable work by M. Villars, a Frenchman, which won 
the prize proposed, about the year 1802, by the French Institute. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 87 

down" ? Rev. xviii. Thus we behold how sweetly reason 
and revelation harmonize together. 

Although what has been already said may lead every in- 
telligent mind to see that infallibility is no more than a mere 
fiction, yet, as it has done so much evil, I shall, through 
divine aid, farther proceed to prove it utterly false and im- 
possible, and thus finally overthrow it. " Infallibility," as 
we have seen, " is not in tlie pope, is not in the whole of 
the bishops, but is in the majority of the bishops united 
with their head the pope;" that is, "it is not in all the 
bishops," and " it is in all the bishops !" Or many fallibles 
make an infallible, many curve lines make a straight one, 
and many naughts make whole numbers ! This is the doc- 
trine of the papal church ! Hear the following arguments. 

1st Argument. — The decrees of a council must be com- 
pleted and ended, before they are presented to the pope for 
confirmation. If they be then wrong, his confirmation can- 
not make them right ; or if they be right before, his con- 
firmation can add nothing to them. Then to say, that in- 
fallibility springs from the junction of this confirmation, 
which by itself is nothing, with the decrees of a council, 
which by themselves are nothing, is to say, it springs from 
the junction of two nothings ! Therefore such infallibility 
is false and impossible. 

2d. As a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and 
as infallibility cannot spring forth from any thing unlawful, 
it is then an admitted fact, that, " in order that the decrees 
of a council may be lawful, the bishops must be free;" but 
the bishops being all bound to the pope, " to be ever obedient 
to him, (see Appendix,) nor ever do any thing against his 
interest," are not free ; therefore their decrees cannot be 
lawful. Hence such decrees never can be infallible : there- 
fore infallibility arising from such must be false and impos- 
sible. This must be as obvious as that a jury who are my 
copartners, and are sworn to promote my interests, are not 
fit to decide equitably in any cause between me and others. 

3d. The pope and council must be lawful, and must know 
that they are lawful and true bishops, before their decrees 
can be lawful or infallible ; but in order to know this, they 
must know that they are truly baptized and truly ordained. 
But this, according to the doctrine of intention, is impos- 
sible to be known. That their decrees then are lawful, 



88 INFALLIBILITY 

must ever be impossible to be known, therefore can they 
never be infallible ; consequently, papal infallibility must 
be ever impossible and false. 

4th. The bull of Pope Julius II. saith, " If any pope be 
siraoniacally chosen by any of the cardinals, upon any gift 
or promise whatever, his election is, ipso facto, null, and 
the cardinals may oppose him so chosen as if guilty of 
heresy; nor should any one look on such an one as pope, 
but should avoid him as a magician or heathen," &c. Bull 
Jul. II. 

Pope Sixtus Quintus was elected* simoniacally, (as were 
others too ;) he was not therefore a true pope, but as a 
heathen or magician, and all the cardinals made by him 
were illegal ; and no pope elected by illegal cardinals can 
be a lawful pope. But Cardinal Montallo, Sixtus's nephew, 
with forty votes entered into the conclave, and elected Ur- 
ban VII. ; therefore Urban, thus illegally chosen, was not 
a lawful pope ; nor was Gregory XIV., nor Innocent IX., 
being similarly chosen, and all of whom died within little 
more than one year. Nor could Clement VIII., chosen by 
the same, be a true pope ; nor was any cardinal created by 
these popes, who were not legal nor better therefore than 
"heathens or magicians," lawful; and hence, could no pope 
or cardinals ever after be lawful, or be other than " hea- 
thens !" What then becomes of the church of Rome and 
her infallibility 1 or of those who pin their faith on her and 
her pope ? 

When all these plain arguments, from extreme unction, 
the doctrine of intention, and the four just stated against 
infallibility, and which challenge disproof, are considered, 
and when infallibility is your foundation, O ye people of 

* " A case in point is that of Sixtus V. Having promised under his 
hand to Cardinal d'Eeste (who had great influence) that he would never 
during his popedom create Jeremiah Matthew a cardinal ; and having, 
in violation of his faith, afterwards created him cardinal, d'Eeste wrote 
to Philip II. King of Spain, and sent him the instrument signed by the 
pope's own hand. Whereupon the king (an. 1580) sent the Duke of 
Guise ambassador extraordinary to Rome, to intimate to Pope Sixtus his 
intention of calling, according to the bull of Julius II., a general council 
to inquire into his simoniacal election. When the pope received this 
message and the instrument signed by himself, he fell into so great per- 
plexity that he died soon after, which put an end to the proceedings." 
See Stiliingfleet, p. 125. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 89 

the church of Rome, must you not count it extreme madness 
to believe such matters ? Yet, incredible and unaccountable 
as it is, all this has been believed by nations, and multi- 
tudes, and peoples ; yes, and is still believed ! Must you 
not see then that they have been bewitched ? But this has 
been prophesied more than seventeen hundred years ago by 
St. John, Rev. xvii. 2, 4, 15, 18; and xviii. 23. "And the 
woman whom thou sawest, having a golden cup in her 
hand full of abomination and filthiness, is that great city 
seated upon seven mountains, which reigneth over the 
kings of the earth. And the inhabitants of the earth have 
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication," that is, 
false doctrines: "for by thy sorceries were all nations 
deceived !" 



INFALLIBILITY DESTROYED BY SCRIPTURE. 

Having thus far chased infallibility through every lane, 
and proved it to be a falsehood and impossibility, I now 
come to dislodge it from its last stand, namely, the Scrip- 
ture. The papal clergy do assert. That Christ is the author 
of it: as if falsehood could proceed from him ! The nations 
believing this were deceived. The scriptures adduced for 
its support are chiefly Matt. xvi. 18. "Thou art Peter, and 
upon this rock will I build my church," &c., and in Matt, 
vii. 24, "The wise man buildeth his house upon a rock." 
Dr. Challoner,* Dr. Manning,! the Douay Testament, and 
also Mr. Thayer, do confess, "That on these two texts 
doth rest the whole weight of their infallibility. 

To demolish this building of so long standing is a serious 
work ; I must then proceed with care, and therefore shall 
premise the following propositions : 

1st Prop. — Every dispensation of a revelation from God 
must be consistent with itself, and the Christian being the 
most bright and perfect, must therefore in all its parts har- 
monize with itself, with the perfections of God, and with 
right reason, of which he is the author, else would it not 
be perfect. 

2d Every interpretation of this revelation, or of any of 

* Challoner's Catholic Christian. 

f Manning's Short Way to end Disputes, p. 25, 29. 

8* 



90 INFALLIBILITY 

its parts, when in perfect a^eement with the whole, and 
with right reason, must be true. 

3d. Every interpretation of this revelation which is con- 
tradictory of it, or of any of its parts, must be false. 

4th. Every system of religion built upon such false in- 
terpretation, as far as it is false, must necessarily be so far 
false also, and vice versa. 

5th. Hence, every man with due care can readily distin- 
guish between that system which is false and that which is 
true, between that which is in all its parts consistent and 
that which is inconsistent ; and instead of foolishly trusting 
the assertions of any men, may with certainty choose the 
good and refuse the evil, and thus be saved. — And this 
course the divine command, "Ze^ no man deceive you — 
prove all things, hold fast that which is good,'' proves 
to be right. He then that neglects this plan and this blessed 
command deserves to perish. 

Now I proceed to state the interpretation given by the 
papal church to the above-mentioned scriptures, on which 
they seat themselves as on a mountain of brass ; but the 
touch of truth shall quickly crumble it into dust. 

" Thou art Peter, and upon this Peter, as upon a rock 
of invincible strength, next to myself, will I build my one 
and only church, out of which there can he no salvation, 
and I appoint thee to be the chief pastor or head thereof, 
whom all are to believe and obey, in token whereof I give 
thee the keys to bind and loose, enduing thee with all ful- 
ness of power and authority; and what thou doest on earth 
1 will ratify in heaven ; and I grant thee the power of in- 
dulgences also, even to relieve souls from purgatory; and 
the gates of hell shall never prevail against this church and 
rock — they shall be ever infallible. And to all these privi- 
leges shall the bishop of Rome, as thy successor, be also 
entitled to the end of the world." This is exactly what is 
claimed by this church. 

I shall state the whole passage, Matt. xvi. 15, "He sailh 
unto them, but whom say ye that I am? 16 ver. And Si- 
mon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God. 17 ver. And Jesus answered and said 
unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which 
s in heaven. 18 ver. And I say also unto thee, that thou 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 91 

art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 ver. And 
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; 
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven." 

Our paraphrase of it is as follows: "Jesus saith, Blessed 
art thou, Simon, for while mistaken men judge me to be 
only a prophet, my Father hath showed thee, (as he doth 
to all true believers,*) that I am the Christ. This is the 
only foundation! which hath been from the beginning of the 
world, and was that of the prophets,! and shall be of my 
aposdes also; and on this very foundation or rock, which 
thou hast now confessed, will I build my church, in which 
thou also, Peter, shalt be a principal builder and lively 
stone, § as shall thy fellow apostles ; and to thee, (with 
them, II) I give the keys^ of true doctrine and discipline. 
And against this my church of holy, persevering, obedient 
believers in every age, shall the gates of hell never prevail." 

This interpretation makes 1st, the rock to be Christ. 
2d. His church, true believers. 3d. Their security, his 
promise, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against them." 

If this meaning be proved consistent and true, and the 
other false and discordant, then it must be that infallibility 
built on the latter rests on a falsehood, and is destroyed, and 
the church of Rome is overturned. 

Now, if our interpretation agree with the Scriptures, with 
the original Greek, with reason, together with the ancient 
Fathers, it must (per proposition 2) be indubitably true. 

The controversy here is not, whether Christ be the great 
foundatioQ of his church, (for in this all are agreed,) but it 
is this, whether the term rock, in this passage, belongs to 
Christ or to St. Peter; on the decision of this one word, 
this single point, they stand or fall ! If this fail them — if it 
is proved the term rock belongs to Christ alone, and not to 
Peter, they are undone ! They confess their chief, their 
only foundation is gone, and all their pretensions fall to the 
ground at once ! And yet, though the terra should belong 

* John i. 49 — xi. 27. 1 John v. 10. Gal. i. 1 G.— iv. 6. 

t 1 Peter i. 19, 20. Rev. xiii. 8. t Eph. ii. 20. 1 Peter ii. 4, 6. 

§ 1 Peter v. 1. Rev. xxi. 14, 19. 

a John XX. 21, 23. Matt, xviii. 18. \ Luke xi. 52. 



92 INFALLIBILITY 

to Peter, it will do them no service, as 1 shall shortly 
prove. 

Why such multitudes who are of the Papacy, and so 
many of them learned men, should thus dread that the term 
ROCK should mean Christ, and hazard their all, their very 
existence, upon a single expression, nay, upon one ambi- 
guous word, and not rather on the whole Scripture, must 
appear most amazing, if not suspicious too ! But the sur- 
prise will cease, when it is understood, this supremacy and 
infallibility they contend for, they confess, St. Peter him- 
self, from whom they wdsh to derive it, could not have, 
except from this solitary expression, this one word. But 
if from this expression it shall appear he could not be en- 
titled to any such privilege, nor even ever so Auch as 
thought of any such thing, what then becomes of their 
cause ? it falls to pieces. To us, however, who fix our 
faith, not on any dexterous invention, or cunning and inge- 
nious fable, founded on or drawn from any one mere insu- 
lated word, liable to be tortured to mean any thing or 
nothing, but on the broad basis of eternal truth — on the un- 
erring and harmonious gospel of Christ, which we know 
all the aposdes preached, and Peter too, (nor dare he or 
any of them do otherwise ;*) to us, sir, it matters not to 
whom the term rock belongs, as you shall quickly see. I 
now go to our proofs of Scripture, selecting a few out of 
many. 

1st, Is from St. Peter himself, 1 Peter ii. 6 — 8, "Behold 
I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone, (or rock, verse 8,) elect, 
precious : and he that believeth on Him shall not be con- 
founded." Here, as above, v/e have, 1st. The foundation, 
the rock, Christ. 2dly. His church ; believers on him. 
3dly. The promise they shall not be confounded; or " the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against them."t 

2d scripture : John x. 27, 28. " My sheep hear my 
voice, and I know them, and they follow me ; and I give 
unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any pluck them out of my hand." 

Here again, the foundation is Christ, and his voice or 
gospel. 2d. His church ; they who hear and follow him. 
3d. They shall never perish; or "the gates of hell," &s. 

* Gal. i. 8, 9. Rev. xxii. IS. 
•j- See Acts iv. 11. Rom. x. II. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 93 

3d scripture : Matt. vii. 24. " Therefore, whosoever 
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken 
him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; 
25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not ; for 
it was founded upon a rock." Christ and his doctrine is 
the rock. 2d. The church, to the end of time ; all obedi- 
ent believers cleaving to him alone, like the wise man's 
house built upon the bare rock. 3d. The storms and floods, 
i. e. " the gates of hell, shall not prevail against them ;" 
here is no mention of St. Peter, or of any secondary rock. 
This last is the very scripture (however implacable, and 
which turns against themselves) which they brought to sup- 
port them.* Hence St. Peter himself supports our inter- 
pretation. We are in agreement with him, and with Christ 
our Lord, and the whole Scriptures on this point. 

II. The original Greek and Latin. If it were written, 
^' E7t^ tovto tie Xlffpo" — '■'' Super hunc Petrum;''^ "Upon 
this Peter," &c., they might have had some shadow or plea 
for their system ; but it is not so. The words of Christ 
are, " 2v ft IltT'pof, xai srtt tavtrj frj Ttf-fpa," " Thou art Peter, 
and upon this Ttstpa, rock," which thou hast confessed, &c. 
Your Latin Vulgate has "7\< es Petrus et super hanc pe- 
tram^'' making an evident distinction, as doth the Greek, 
between Petrus, Peter, the masculine gender, and petram, 
rock, the feminine. Hence, the original tells against them. 
Added to this, we find in the Old Testament many passages 
designating Jehovah by the term "rock." Deut. xxxii. 4, 
" He is the rock. 15. Jeshurun forsook God — the rock of 
his salvation." 2 Sam. xxii. 2 — 32, The Lgrd is my rock. 
Who is a rock save our God ? xxiii. 3. Ps. xxxi. 3 ; 
xviii. 2 — 46, (fee. 

III. That Christ and his unchangeable gospel and inspired 
servants should govern the consciences and direct the faith 
of all Christians in every age, is consonant with reason. 
But that any one fallible, frail mortal, should be appointed 
to do so, is more absurd, vasfly so, than for one king to 
think to govern with strict equity all the individuals of all 
the nations of the earth ! Hence reason is against them. 

IV. The ancient Fathers. — St. Augustine, (on iMatt 
13 ser.) "Z)e verbis Domini, tu es ergo Petrus,'''' &c 

* See also 1 Cor. iii. 1 1. Mark xvi. 15. 



94 INPALLIBTLTTY 

"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock which thou hast con- 
fessed, u])on this, which thou hast acknowledged, sayinsf, 
'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God;' I will buiid 
my church ; that is, upon myself, the. Son of the living 
God, I w-ill build my church," &c. 

St. Hilary, (Can. 16, de fundam. Eccles.) '■^Unum igitur 
hoc est immobile fundamentum,'''' &c. " This one founda- 
tion is immoveable, that is, that one blessed rock of faith, 
confessed by the mouth of Peter, ' Thou art the Son of the 
living God.' " — (De Trinit. 1. 6.) '■'■ Super hanc confessionis 
petram eccleslse sedifcatio est.^^ " The building of the 
church is upon this rock of confession." And again, '^ hsec 
Jides,^^ &c. " This faith is the foundation of the church ; 
this faith hath the keys of the kingdom of heaven : what 
this faith shall loose or bind is bound and loosed in hea- 
ven." 

Origen, "^i autem,^'' &c. " It w^as truly said unto Peter, 
' Thou art Peter, and upon this stone will I build my church,' 
&c. ; yet it seemeth to be said to all the apostles, and to 
evej-y perfect faithful ma?!, because they all, as Peter, be 
stones ; on them all the church of Christ is builded, and 
the gates of hell shall prevail against none that are such." — 
Hom. 5, in Ec. 

Bede (on this place "7\^ es ergo,'''' &c.) saith, '■^ Meta- 
phorice,'' &c. " It is said unto him by a metaphor, Upon 
this rock, i.'e. the Saviour, whom thou hast confessed, the 
church is builded." 

I might easily multiply authorities of this nature, but let 
these suffice. Thus is the 1st point manifestly proved, 
viz. The full harmony of the Scriptures, of reason, of the 
original Greek and Latin, and of the ancient fathers, with 
our interpretation, that the term rock, in Matt. xvi. 18, be- 
longs to Christ and not to Peter. 

2d Point: The discordancy of their interpretation proved. 
"The Scripture," say they, " can have neither authority nor 
meaning, but when infallibly interpreted by their church!" 
Then, their church must have had infallibility before such 
interpretation of Scripture, and therefore, before any such 
scriptural infallibility could have existed ! That is, they 
had it before they could have had it ! Whence came it ? 
From Scripture. From Scripture, " a book with them, 
without meaning or authority," they could not possibly 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 9.5 

have derived it! Where they got it then, let them tell. 
And this is "their strong foundation;" yet where they 
found it they know not ! But they go about to seek it and 
its proof from Scripture, and so ruin their cause ; for if 
from Scripture they must have it, then they grant the pre- 
vious independency and authority thereof: which at once 
overturns their foundation from the very bottom, and so 
their boasted infallibility expires as in a moment. For it 
is an eternal principle, and rule of reason, never to prove 
one thing by another, till that other is first well proved :^ 
nor can that, thus proved, ever afterwards prove that by 
Avhich itself was proved, any more thaa a son begotten by 
his father, can afterwards beget his father. Yet as they 
nevertheless claim it now from Scripture, (Matt. xvi. 18,) 
I shall proceed to destroy even that claim, by proving that 
Peter is not that rock of Christ's church meant in the text. 

1st argument. That Peter is not the rock. When two 
witnesses are brought to prove any fact, to succeed they 
must agree ; if not, that cause is lost. But they bring 
Matt. vii. 24, "The wise man builds his house upon a 
r /ck," that it may agree with Matt. xvi. 18, to prove that 
Peter is the rock; but that it refuses to do, or to mention 
Peter at all. So their proof fails, and Peter is not the rock. 

2d. St. John saith, "He that committeth sin is of the 
devil ;" and Drs. Challoner, Butler, &c. &c. teach, "When 
any one even consents to any one mortal sin after baptism, 
he instantly falls from God to the devil, becomes the slave 
of Satan, and an heir of hell." But St. Peter, after these 
words of Christ, "Thou art Peter," &c., sinned, nay, 
committed mortal sin; for he denied Christ, and cursed, 
and swore he knew him not, and thus told grievous lies. 
Matt. xxvi. 74. Therefore Satan or the gates of hell pre- 
vailed against him ! Now the gates of hell could not prevail 
against the rock meant by Christ, but they prevailed against 
Peter, therefore Peter was not that rock Christ meant. 
They, then, who teach St. Peter was the rock of the church 
meant by Christ, by consequence teach that Christ was a 
false prophet ! For it comes to this, either their interpreta- 
tion in this point is false, or Christ was a false prophet, 
which to say is blasphemy. But St. Peter was raised up 
again, therefore the gates of hell did not finally prevail 

* For this would be the fallacy logicians call "reusoiihg in a circkJ' 



96 INFALLIBILITY 

against him. Tliis is a fallacy; for if it be prophesied of a 
pillar that it shall never fall, if it fall even once, though it be 
soon built up again, the prophecy would be false. Ergo, St. 
Peter, who fell, although raised up again, was not the rock. 
And that he was not the foundation or rock is confirmed by 
the Holy Ghost, (Eph. ii. 20,) saying. That the foundation 
of the apostles and prophets was the same, even Christ. 

ST. PETER WAS CHIEF PASTOR SUPREME HEAD, AND SHOULD 

BE OBEYED. 

For Jesus saith, "Simon, I have prayed for thee, feed 
my sheep, feed my lambs; I give thee the keys," &:c.* 

Not so ; he was not made chief pastor or head ; and for 
the following reasons, viz. : 

1st. Having not only by other arguments, but now by 
the mighty sword of Scripture, cut infallibility to pieces, 
supremacy, which was to grow out of it, is therefore at 
once annihilated. And surely no one will say, when Peter 
was giving false counsel, (Matt. xvi. 22,) that he should be 
obeyed; for the Lord said to him, "Get thee behind me, 
Satan, thou art an offence to me." Nor was he to be be- 
lieved except when telling truth, not when telling lies cer- 
tainly. Matt. xxvi. 74. Nor to be followed when mislead- 
ing the flock. Gal. ii. 11. Here St. Paul withstood him 
and reproved him sharply ! 

2d. These scriptures, which are said to confer tJiis 
honour on St. Peter, when examined, prove the very con- 
trary. Their meaning is plain. Saith Christ, " Satan, 
(spying thy self-sufficiency,) desireth to have thee, but I 
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou 
art converted, strengthen thy brethren," lest any of them 
ever fall, shamefully fall, like thee. Peter being then warned 
of his danger by his Lord, shoald have prayed to him for 
divine aid, that his faith might not fail. For when divine 
promises are given to men, unless we inquire of the Lord 
10 fulfil them, they shall profit us nothing, (Ezek. xxxvi. 
37,) but rather increase our condemnation! And when he 
was restoring him to his forfeited office, he, in opposition to 
tlie three times he denied and dishonoured him, asks him 
three times, "Simon, lovest thou me?" Peter feeling this 

* Luke xxii. 32. John xxi. 15, 18. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 97 

sharp though tender reproof, answered with grief, "Yea, 
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Then Christ saith, 
" Feed my sheep, and my lambs, i. e. my old and new fol- 
lowers, and no more by such conduct dishearten or destroy 
them, but feed and encourage them by thy example, doc- 
trine, and suffering even death for my name. The keys 
or commission given to preach the gospel, and regulate 
Christ's kingdom or church according thereto, was given to 
all the apostles equally.* Where then in all this is there any 
ground for supremacy ? The apostles saw none ! 

^. Christ would not allow of any headship among 
them, but taught them they were all to be equal. <'Be not 
ye called rabbi, [master,) for one is your Master, even 
Christ, and all ye are brethren.'''' \ AVe see a strife among 
them who should be greatest,! which could not be, had 
they understood Peter to have been appointed chief, and 
which our Lord reproves, as he did above. "The kings 
of the Gentiles," said he, "exercise lordship over them, 
but ye shall not be so." That is, there shall be no king 
or head among you, but each one shall strive to be least, 
servant of all, and all be subservient to each other. The 
aposdes sent Peter and John to Samaria to preach. § Now 
he that was sent could not be greater than those who sent 
him, as our Lord testifies. || Again, he is called to a strict 
account by the other apostles.^ St. James, not St. Peter, 
decides in the council where Peter was present, saying, 
^^ My sentence is,^' &c. James, Cephas, or Peter, and 
John, are equally called pillars.** 

4th. St. Paul overturns "every such idea ; he tells us, 
" That himself was taken up to the third heaven ;"tt 
" That he was in nothing behind the very chiefest apos- 
tles," and declares, "The care of all the churches fell 
upon him."4::|: "That he was appointed apostle of the 

♦ John XX. 21, 23. Mark xv. 15. Matt, xxviii. 19, "Go ye into all 
the world." 

f Matt. xxii. 8, 10. 

+ Matt. XX. 25, 26, 27. Luite xxii. 24, 2>. 2 Cor. i. 24. 1 Peter v. .3. 

§ Acts viii. 14. H John xiii. 16. ^ Acts xv. 19. 

**Gal. ii. 9. Rom.xi. 13; xv. 16. jf 2 Cor, xii. 2— 11 ; xi. 5— 28. 

+t Says St. Chrysostora, " To St. Paul was committed the whole 

world, — he had an anxious solicitude for all the churches throughout 

the world. Than St. Paul no one is greater, to him no one is equal. 

If he laboured more abundantly than all the rest of the apostles., he will 

9 



lib INFALLIBILITY 

Gentiles, as Peter was of the Jews;" and boasts his grant 
authority, saying, "That he withstood Peter to the face 
because he was culpable."* A most notorious falsehood, 
all this, if St. Peter were chief head. Now if any were 
our chief head, being Gentiles, it must have been St. Paul, 
not St. Peter, who was the apostle of the Jews. 

5th. Seeing St. John was our Lord's kinsman, always 
next him, leaning on his bosom, speaking to him for the 
other apostles, when none else of them did do so, and re- 
ceiving his Holy Mother in charge from him, when on the 
cross ; also his great labours, and being the survivor of 
them all ; surely it must be thought he was the chief. But 
there was no such thing, no chief, they were all equal. 
Hence no supremacy existed. 

6th. The ancient Fathers declare against it. 

Origen, Horn. 5, on Exodus. Si autem super unum 
ilium Petrum, &c. "But if thou thinkest that the uni- 
versal church is built by God upon this one Peter, what 
sayest thou of James and John, the sons of thunder, and of 
every other apostle ?" St. Cyprian de imitate ecclesise. 
Quamvis apostolibus omnibus, &c. " The same thing, 
verily, were all the apostles that Peter was, endued with 
equal fellowship of honour and authority." Many testi- 
monies of this kind m.ight be adduced. 

Now if St. Peter himself had no infallibility nor supre- 
macy, as is fully proved he had not, then, for the pope to 
succeed to it, is most ridiculous, and is such an imposture 
as none but the silliest dupes could countenance. 

I shall now propose to him and all his clergy a few ques- 
tions, Avhich, if they be not past feeling, must mightily 
agitate them. 

1st. Supposing Peter was even endued with these pecu- 
liar prerogatives, how came the Pope of Rome, and not the 
I^atriarch of Antioch, or any of the eastern bishops to suc- 
ceed to and possess them ? 

2d. Is the succession of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter, 
an article of divine institution and faith? It is, or it is 
not; if not, then it is not of God, and binds no man; and 

le more abundantly rewarded. And as he was greater than they, it is 
just that he will enjoy (t«? tfiwrara T///«f) the highest honour and the 
first seat among them." De laud. Paul. Oper. vol. i. 517. 
* Gal. ii. 7. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 90 

SO expires. But if it be, where have we any word of God, 
by which alone divine faith comes, which appoints it to 
him ? Now they are caught, they can find none ; the con- 
clusion then is manifest, it is but a scandalous usurpation 
ind imposture on mankind. 

3d. Was the first Bishop of Rome, whether Linus, Cle- 
mens, &Q.,* supreme head of the whole church of Christ? 
He was, or he was not. 

If God hath appointed in his holy church, 1st, the apos- 
tles, as the chief officers therein ; 2d, Prophets, &c. 1 Cor. 
xii. 28 ; and that St. John was then, and for thirty or thirty- 
six years alive, after St. Peter's death ; I demand who was 
then St. Peter's successor, and supreme head ? John, the 
aged, the beloved apostle, or Linus, the new bishop ? Now 
again you are at your wit's end ; if you say Linus v/as, you 
oppose all reason and God's appointment of the apostles as 
chief, and thus subvert the gospel : or if you must confess 
St. John was indeed the then supreme head, you ruin your 
cause ; your infallibility, supremacy, &c., are lost forever. 
For if there were any such thing at all, and could descend, 
it must have been from the last apostle, St. John. But from 
him, who never lived in Rome but in Asia, ye do not, could 
not claim it. Hence for the pope to have any just claim to 
supremacy is impossible ; it is the grossest of all imposi- 
tions. And seeing it is such, what must the claimant's cha- 
racter be expected to be, but that of the greatest deception 
and iniquity? So might it be expected, and so we find it. 
I shall adduce a fev/ testimonies out of multitudes ; and the 
first shall be from a Bishop of Rome himself. 

THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF DEPICTED. 

St. Gregory the Great, a Pope of Rome, (about the year 

594.) in his letters to John, Bishop of Constantinople, who 

first sought the supremacy, and to the Emperor Mauritius, 

and his empress, &;c. &c. 

f " Gregory, to John, Bishop of Constantinople. — Let your 

* TertuUian de Prsesc. haeret. c. 32. Ruffinus, Recog. p. 398, and 
the Latins in general, make Clement first Bishop of Rome ; but Jerom, 
Hier. Vir. illust. c. 15, and others, maintain a contrary opinion, and place 
Linus immediately after the apostles; this latter opinion Alvan Bullet 
endeavours to establish. — Lives of Saints, vol. iv. 



100 INFALLIBILITY 

holiness acknowledge, that ^Discipulis Dominus elicit, au- 
tern nolite, vocari rabbi, unus enim Magister vester est, 
vos omnes fratres estis,^ &c. ' Our Lord says to his dis- 
ciples, ' Be not ye called rabbi, for one is your Master, and 
all ye are brethren.' What therefore, most dear brother, 
are you, in the terrible examination of the coming Judge, 
to say, who, generalis pater in mundo vocari appetis? 
desire to be called, not father, only, but the general father 
of the world ? 

" Beware of the sinful suggestions of the wicked. Of- 
fences must indeed come, but ivo to that man by whom 
the offence cometh. Behold, the church is rent by this 
ivicked uwrld of pride ; the hearts of the brethren are of- 
fended. Have you forgotten what truth saith ? ' Whoso 
offendeth one of these little ones who believes in me, it 
were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his 
neck, and he plunged into the depth of the sea.' 

^'' Scriptum est enim, charitas non quserit qitse sunt sua. 
* For it is written, charity seeketh not her own.' Behold 
you, our brother, arrogate to yourself the things of others. 
Again, it is written, ' preferring one another in honour ;' 
and you endeavour to take it away from all, and usurp it 
wholly to yourseh", against reason and right. I beg, I en- 
treat, and I beseech, with all possible suavity, that your 
brotherhood resist all these flatterers who offer you this 
NAME of error, and that you refuse to be designated by so 
foolish and so proud an appellation. For I indeed say it 
with tears, and from the inward anguish of my bowels, that 
to my sins I attribute it, that my brother cannot to this day 
be brought to humility, who was made bishop for this end, 
that he might lead the minds of others to humility. It is 
written, ' God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the 
humble:' and again it is said, ' He is unclean before God, 
who exalteth his heart ;' hence, it is written against the 
proud man, 'Quid superbis, terra et cinis ?' 'Earth and 
ashes, why art thou proud?' And truth itself saith, 'Every 
one that exalteth himself shall be humbled ;' who, that he 
might by humility bring to the way of life, has vouchsafed 
to point out unto us what he taught, saying, ' Learn of me, 
for 1 am meek and lowly of heart.' For this, the only be- 
gotten Son of God took upon himself the form of our in- 
firmities : for this, the Invisible became not only visible, 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 101 

but despised : for this, he bore the insults of reproaches, 
shameful mockings, and most grievous sufferings, that an 
humble God might teach man not to be proud. Because 
the pride of the devil was the origin of our destruction, the 
humility of God is found the instrument of our redemption. 
For our enemy, created with all other things, wished to be 
seen exalted over all things : but our Redeemer remaining 
great above all things, hath thought fit to become little 
among all things. What then do we bishops say, who 
take the place of honour from the humility of our Re- 
deemer, and yet imitate the pride of his enemy? 

^^ Perpends, rogo, quia in hac presumptions pax totius 
turhatur ecclesise,^^ &c. "Consider, I entreat you, that by 
this rash presumption is the peace of the whole church 
disturbed, and the grace poured out in common upon all 
contradicted : in which you can increase only in proportion as 
you carefully decrease in self-esteem, and become the greater 
the more you restrain yourself from this name of proud and 
foolish usurpation; love humility, therefore, my dearest 
brother, with your v/hole heart, by which concord among 
all the brethren and the unity of the holy universal church 
may be preserved. Truly, Vv'hen Paul the apostle heard 
some say, ' I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas,' 
he, vehemently abhorring this tearing asunder of the Lord's 
body, by which they, in some sense, united his members 
to other heads, cries out. Was Paul crucified for you, or 
were you baptized in the name of Paul ? If then he would 
not sufier the members of the Lord's body to be, as it were, 
particularly subject to certain heads beyond Christ, and 
they aposdes too, what will you say to Christ the head of 
his universal holy church, in the trial of the last judgment, 
who endeavour to subject all his members under the title 
o( universal ? Whom, pray, do you propose to imitate by 
this perverse name, but him, who, despising the legions of 
angels, his companions, endeavoured to break forth, and 
ascend to an elevation peculiar to himself, that he might 
seem to be subject to none, and to be above all of them ? 
Who also said, ' I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
throne above the stars of heaven ; I will be like the Most 
High !' For, what are all your brother bishops of the uni- 
versal church, but the stars of heaven, whose lives and 
preaching give light among the sins and errors of men, as 
9* 



102 INFALLIBILITY 

in thf darkness of night ? Above whom, when you thus 
desire to elevate yourself by this haughty title, and to 
tread down their name in comparison of yours, what lo 
you say but I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
throne above the stars of heaven ? Are not all the bishops 
the clouds of heaven, which water by their preaching, and 
glitter by the light of good works ? whom, whilst you, our 
brother, despising and endeavouring to depress under you, 
what else but this do you say, but what the old enemy said, 
* I will ascend above the height of the clouds V 

'■'■Jltque ut cuncta hrevi singulo locutionis astringam,^^ 
&;c. And that I may sum up all in one word : the saints 
before the law, the saints under the law, and the saints 
under grace, the gospel — all these, making up the perfect 
body of our Lord, are constituted but members of the 
church ; none of them would ever have himself called uni- 
versal. Let your holiness then acknowledge how he must 
swell with pride w^ho covets to be called by this name, 
which no true saint would presume to accept. Were not, 
as your brotherhood knows, my predecessors in this apos- 
tolical see, wiiich I now serve by God's providence, called 
oy the council of Chalcedon to this offered honour? but 
none of them would ever allow himself to be named by 
such a title — none snatched at this rash name, lest if he 
should seize on this singular glory of the pontificate, he 
should seem to deny it to all his brethren. 

" Sed omnia qux prsedicta sunt, fiiint: rex suptrbias 
prope est ef quod diet nefas est, sacerdotum est praspara- 
tus exitus {pel exercitus ei) qui cervice militant elationisy 
"But all things which are foretold are come to pass; the 
king of pride approaches, and O, horrid to tell ! the going 
forth of (or the army of the priests) is ready for him, who 
fight with the neck of pride, though appointed to lead to 
humiUty." Lib. 4, ep. 38. 

To the Emperor Mauritius and the empress. — "Now 
this brother by a presumption never before known, contrary 
to the precepts of the gospel, and to the decrees of the ca- 
nons, usurping a new name, glorying in new and profano 
titles, which blasphemy be far from every Christian heart, 
would be called universal bishop; but in this his pride what 
doth he but show the time of antichrist approaches, be- 
rause he imitates him who, despising his brother angels, 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 103 

would rise to a height peculiar to himself, that he might 
be subject to none. When he who is called universal falls, 
the church that hath consented to that profane name hath 
rushed headlong from its state ; but far be that blasphemous 
name from the hearts of Christians. To consent to that 
wicked word universal is nothing else but to destroy the 
faith." Lib. 4, ep. 38. 

Then, according to Pope Gregory, it was antichristian, 
blasphemous, and diabolical for any bishop to assume the 
title supreme head, and heresy and a losing of the faith for 
any one to acknowledge it, and that all should strive against 
it to death. Hence, from this pope's testimony, it is pretty 
evident that St. Peter had nothing to do with it. Yet in a 
few years, in 606, his own successor, Boniface III., by the 
aid of the Emperor Phocas,* took this very title, which 
Gregory called execrable. Thus has a Pope of Rome, with 
great point and accuracy, more than twelve hundred years 
ago, marked the distinct character of the man of sin, the 
son of perdition, as being a Christian bishop with an army 
of priests, taking to him in his pride the title universal or 
sovereign pontiff, that is, antichrist ! 

Baronius, a cardinal himself, writes, (a. d. 827,) "That 
for one hundred and fifty years together the popes were 
rather apostates than apostolics, and that they were thrust 
into the papal chair by the power of harlots, and the vio- 
lence of the princes of Tuscany; they were monsters, men 
of most base life, most destructive morals, and in every 
manner most defiled."! And, on An. 912, he cried out, 
"What was then the face of the Roman church? How 
most foul ! when most powerful and most filthy prostitutes 
ruled and governed in Rome, by whose will the sees were 
changed and bishopricks given away; and that which is 
horrible to relate, their lovers, false popes, were thrust in 
violently into Peter's chair."J And speaking of John XL, 

* " Phocas iratus Ciriaco Episcopo Constantinopolitano adjudicavit 
titulam (Ecumenici Pontifici Romano soli." — Baronius, An. a. c. 606, 
" Phocas, being incensed against Ciriacus, Bishop of Constantinople, 
who had assumed the title, granted the title sovereign pontiff to the 
Roman bishop." 

f Homines monstrosi, vita turpissimi, moribus perditissimi, usque- 
quaque fedissimi. — Baronius, An. 897. 

t Quod tunc facies ecclesise Romanaj? Quara fcedissiraa, &c. — Ba 
ronius, An. 912, § 13. 



'04 INFALLIBILITY 

bastard to Pope Serg-ius, by the courtesan Marozia, whc 
came to the popedom in the year 931, he saith, "The Re 
man church suffered herself to be so villanously oppressed 
by such a monster." And "John XII. who, at the age of 
eighteen, by means of these prostitutes, attained to the 
papacy in the year 955," is abhorred by the said Baronius 
"as an execrable monster." 

Luitprandus and the Fasciculus Temporum say that this 
John being caught in the act of adultery, was so beaten by 
the devil, that he died of it.* 

In the council of Rheims, in the reign of Hugh Capet, 
Arnulphus, Bishop of Orleans, who presided there, speak;^ 
thus: "0, lamentable Rome, which in the time of our an- 
cestors hast brought forth bright shining lights, but now 
thou hast poured out such monstrous darkness as shall be 
infamous to future ages J '^ 

Sigonius, in the beginning of book the 7th of the reign of 
Italy, A. D. 984, says, "Boniface, who made himself to be 
called John XL, having put to death two popes, usurped 
the papacy by violence and by money." Baronius, in a. d. 
985, calls him " a thief and a robber, that had not one haii 
of a true bishop." 

Genebrand, on the year 1037, "The popes of this tims 
being introduced by the emperors, rather than elected, were 
monsters. Thus the lawful succession hath been troubled 
as of old under the synagogue, in the times of the kings 
Antiochi." 

In the year 1033, Benedict IX. being but ten years old, 
was created pope by the faction of his father, the count of 
Tuscula. This pope is described as a monster by Baro 
nius, Platina, the Fasciculus Temporum, and by Petrus Da- 
mianus in his epistle to Nicholas II. 

Platina speaks thus of three popes, who about the year 
10-14 held the papacy: "Henry II., being entered into 
Italy with a mighty army, and having called a council, 
constrained Benedict IX., Sylvester III., and Gregory VI., 
as three horrible monsters, to forsake the magistrature or 
popedom." 

Hear Stella, another Romish divine : " Many of the popes 
of Rome have erred ; Marcellinus sacrificed to idols, Libe 

* Luitprand.— Lib. 6, cap. 1 1. Seigber. ad An. 963. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 105 

rius and Felix were Arians, Anastasius II. was deposed for 
heresy, John XXII. said Christ was above the Father and 
the Holy Ghost." — Stella on Luke xxii. 31, p. 280, col. 1. 

"And after the year 1300," (says Baronius,) "there 
were several popes at the same time, for many years two 
or three together, each having his church, anathematizing 
the others and their churches, and calling them devils and 
antichrists. (So it seems they were all cursed together !) 
And in 1414 were three, Benedict XII., Gregory XIII., and 
John XXIII. , deposed by the council of Constance, and 
Martin V. was elected." So four of these worthies were 
then living! And who of all these, I now ask, was the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter to the holy see, or the vicar of Christ ? 
Or were these churches and popes, or any of them, in- 
fallible, and which was it? O, delusion unparalleled! 

Passing by many other arguments, and to close this 
point, I demand, was there for five hundred years after 
Christ any such thing as suprernacy or infallibility claimed 
at all, much less by divine right, by the church of Rome, 
or by any other churcli ? If not, as may be easily proved, 
and that the church of Rome was, by several of the first 
councils, decreed to be of equal authority only with other 
ancient churches, her claim now is therefore a novelty. I 
shall insert out of many only two proofs. 

1st. The general council of Nice, in the year 325, as 
Dupin states: "We ordain that the ancient customs be 
observed, which gives power to the bishop of Alexandria 
over all the provinces of Lybia, Egypt, Pentapolis, be 
cause the Bishop of Rome hath the like jurisdiction ovei 
all the suburbicary regions." Can. 6, An. 325. 

2d. In 451, the general council of Chalcedon, consisting 
of six hundred and thirty bishops, decreed as follows : (Can. 
Penult.) 

"Whereas the old see of Rome hath not been unde- 
servedly distinguished by the fathers with some privileges, 
because that great city was the seat of empire ; the fathers 
of Constantinople were prompted by the saine motives to 
distinguish the city of new Rome with equal privileges ; 
thinking it fit that the city which they saw honoured with 
the empire and the senate, and equalled in every civil and 
religious privilege with old Rome, should likewise be 
squalled in ecclesiastical matters.' 



106 INFALLISILITY 

These prove that the divine claim of the Bishop of Rome 
to be supreme, &c. &c., was not then even thought on. 

I might swell my little work with such like testimonies 
from these and other Roman Catholic writers, but this 
much is more than sufficient, 1st, to stop the mouths of 
those uncandid writers Vv'ho, knowing these facts fully, yet 
shamelessly reproach Protestants, who follow Christ and 
the Bible only, as followers of Luther and others, against 
whom, however, no such evils ever were or could be 
charged, as against these heads of your church ; 2dly, 
(without wishing to give pain to any tender mind,) to con- 
vince you all how foolish and dangerous it is to turn aside 
from Christ and follow any men, especially such monsters 
and their wicked system of religion, which it appears they 
are sworn never to alter; and, 3dly, to show, that as a cor- 
rupt tree cannot yield good fruit, so, from such flagitious 
heads, what fruit, what churches but the most corrupt could 
be anticipated? And exactly so do we find it. 

♦'THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST THE 
CHURCH." 

Against the gospel church — the holy. Catholic, and apos- 
tolic church of Christ — the gates of hell, the powers of 
darkness never did, never can prevail, for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it. But as the infallible gospel teacheth 
us concerning a true church and a false, — the church of 
God and the synagogue of Satan; and that should we mis- 
take the one for the other we should be undone, ("for if the 
blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the gulf,") so 
doth it behove us to give all diligence to know the one from 
the other, that we may choose the good and escape the evil. 

The church formed by our Lord himself in Jerusalem is that 
we should first contemplate as our pattern and guide. Her 
characters were sanctity, apostolicity, unity, and catholicity. 
1st. The few of which our Redeemer composed that church 
were humble, penitent, believing, obedient, holy men and 
women, none other would he receive; for his word is, "Ex- 
cept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."* " No man can 
come to me unless it be given to him of my Father — all, 

* Luke xiii. 3 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 107 

therefore, that hear and learn of the Father come unto me — 
all that the Father giveth me, (thus taught their guilt, cor- 
ruption, and helplessness,) shall come to me, and him that 
Cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out."* Again, "If 
any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, 
and his wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and 
his own life also, (in reference to their being hindrances,) 
he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear 
his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. "t 
"Be ye holy, for I am holy. "J " Without holiness no man 
shall see the Lord."§ "Except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God."|] None but such 
awakened, devoted persons would he then or will he ever 
receive or approve of as members of his holy church. 2d 
mark, apostolicity. That is, their doctrine, sacraments, and 
discipline were purely such as the apostles received in com- 
mission to teach the whole world forever. 3d, unity. They 
were united together under their great Head, Jesus Christ, 
in the spirit of faith, and love to God and man, according to 
their Lord's criterion, "By this shall all men know that ye 
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."^ 4th, 
catholicity. Catholic means universal ; but this infant 
church, then composed of only a few persons, could not in 
respect to extent or numbers be universal, yet in other re- 
spects it was catholic; 1st, prospectively, that is, when this 
little church, "this little stone cut out of the mountain with- 
out hands, should become a great mountain, and fill the 
whole earth;"** and, 2d, it was catholic as being a divine 
MODEL for all Christian churches forever. For the Lord 
said to Moses, " See that all things be done according to 
the pattern showed thee in the mount ;"tt even so is 
Christ's command, in regard to his church, to all his ser- 
vants forever. (nopsnefj^T-as av fxadri-tivGa-es^ (fcc. Euntes 
ergo.) "Go ye, therefore, and teach, or make disciples 
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, {hihaoxovtE^, do- 
centes,) teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you, and behold I am with you all daysj 

* John vi. 37—45. f Luke xiv. 26, 27. 

t I Peter i. 16. § Hebrews xii. 14. 

H John iii. 3. t John xiii. 35. 

** Dan. ii. 34—45. Isa. ii. 2. ff Hob. viii. 5. 



108 INFALLIBILITY 

even to the consummation of the world."* Yes, with those 
only who teach all things he commanded will Christ ever 
be, but with none else. Hence, as that church, framed by 
his own infinite wisdom in Jerusalem, is mother^ of all 
Christian churches, and the perfect pattern or model for all 
churches forever, most plain it is, therefore, that no church 
can please him but such as agree with that model. Such 
as this were the seven churches in Asia, those of Galatia, 
Rome, Corinth, Colosse, Thessalonica, &:c., while they 
continued pure, all having the same gospel doctrine, disci- 
pline, and sacraments — baptism, and the Lord's supper, 
"one body and one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
tism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
through all, and in us all. "J 

That such were those churches the epistles to them prove ; 
and they unitedly formed the one catholic church, and each 
was fidy "the pillar and ground of truth." All this is con- 
sonant with our three creeds: "I believe the holy catholic 
church." "I believe one catholic and apostolic church." 
" Whosever will be saved, it is needful, above all things, 
that he hold the catholic faith, i. e. the faith intended for 
every creature — the gospel. 

This view of the genuine catholic church is fully sup- 
ported by the ancient fathers. Justin Martyr, next to the 
apostles' days, says, ^'■Ecclesia enim per universam orhem,'''' 
&c. " The church is that which is extended throughout the 
earth, and has received the faith from the apostles and 
their disciples." Adv. Hasret. 1. 1, c. 2.§ Again, (c. 1,) 
"It is the voice of reason, and ever attended to by men 
truly pious and worthy the name of philosophers, that truth 
alone is the thing to be had in the highest honour, and to 
hold the first place in the affections, and the ancients to be 
followed not one step farther than they are followers of 
truth." 

Tertullian's rule is, " That a church is to be accounted 
apostolic if it hold consanguinity of doctrine with the apos- 

* Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. f Gal. iv. 26. 

4: Ephes. iv. 26. 

§ St. Jerome and Theodoret insist on this as truth, " That Jerusalem 
IS the mother church ;" and Irenaeus, (1. 4,) saith, " We are to adhere 
to those who, having received the gift of truth {charissima vcritatis) do 
preserve the doctrine of the apostles." 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. i09 

ties."* Again, he saith, " The apostles having planted 
churches of Christ in Jerusalem, immediately went thence 
and declared the same doctrine of the faith to the nations 
of the earth, and then setded churches in each city; from 
whence other churches have the same doctrine, and, from 
them others, daily called apostolical churches, as their off- 
spring. It is necessary that every genus should be traced 
up to its origin. So many and great churches, therefore, 
are all that one prime apostolical church, from whence all 
other such churches do come ; and thus they all are prime 
and apostolical in regard to their unity, as long as there is 
that communication, that title to brotherhood, and common 
mark of peace and hospitality."! 

Again, he saith, (cap. 13,) "The creed of the apostles 
i. e. the gospel, is the rule of faith laid down by Christ; 
and opposition to this rule is what constitutes heresy. Obe- 
dience to this RULE will save thy soul. To know nothing 
contrary to this rule is to know all things." And, (cap. 40,) 
"From whence come heresies? from the devil; and they 
differ not at all from idolatry: both come from the same 
father of lies." Cap. 44. " Preserve the FAITH in the 
bond of peace, as you regard salvation. For those are 
things which nobody will forsake who is mindful of future 
judgment, when we must all stand before the tribunal of 
Christ, to give an account of our faith in the first place." 

St. Augustine writes, "Verbum quod Grece dictur, oxoi/," 
&e. " The Greek term o%ov, is, in Latin, totum, whole, 
or universal ; oXov is not one, but the whole, or universal ; 
and hence is the phrase xado'Kixov, catholic, derived." — 
Tom. 7, c. 3, contra Gaundent. Again, " In Jerusalem, 
communion began first, and from remote places came 
*iearer, until it entered into Africa, and so dispersed itself 
all over the world. From my Father God, and this my 

• Tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus apostolicae deputantur 
pro consanguinitate doctrinae. De prsescrip. adv. Hseret., cap. 32. 

j- Statim igitur apostoli per Judfeam contestata fide in lesum Christum, 
et ecclesiis institutis, dehinc, in orbem profecti eandem doctrinam ejus- 
dem fidei nationibus promulgaverunt et proinde ecclesias apud unam- 
quamque civitatem condiderunt, &c. Omne genus ad originem suam 
recenceatur necesse est : itaque tot ac tantJE ecclesiae una est ilia ab 
apostolis prima ex qua oranes, &c. Tert. de Praescrip. adv. Haeret., c. 20 
10 



110 INFALLIBILITY 

mother church, will I never be separated by other men's 
calumnies." In Petilianum. And again, "Behold Rome, 
behold Carthage, behold several other cities ; these are 
king's daughters, and have delighted the king, and all make 
up but one queen — one church."* 

Again, saith he, (cap. 2,) to Donatus, ^^Qind rogofuturi 
sumus,^^ &LC. " What are we to do? Let us not hive it 
spoken, I say this, and thou sayest that : but let us hear, 
Thus saith' the Lord. There are assuredly the books of the 
Lord, to whose authority we both subscribe ; to them we 
both are subject : that is the place, then, where we are to 
seek the church; there let us debate our cause. Let us 
despise and cast from us those allegations which we make 
one against the other, and which are not taken from the 
divine books, but from elsewhere ; for I desire the church 
to be proved, not by human documents, but by divine 
oracles." And, on Gal. i. this father says, " We must not 
assent to catholic bishops, if they hold any thing contrary 
to canonical Scripture ; although he were an angel that 
holds a wrong opinion, we must not obey him." And, (in 
Epist. in Balur. p. 287,) he saith, " If we Africans were to 
deliberate on what community of Christians we should unite 
with, I say, we ought to adhere to that which we lind in 
the Bible." 

St. Ambrose writes, (in Lucam ix.) " If there be any 
church that does not hold the foundation of apostolic doc- 
trine, it ought to be forsaken, lest it infect others with its 
heresy: they are not the heirs of Peter who have not the 
faith of Peter." 

The council of Constantinople (can. 15) directs, "that 
when a bishop preaches heresy in the church, the people 
sliould depart, and separate themselves from his com- 
munion." 

Theodoret says, " There is one church throughout the 
world, and, therefore, we pray for one holy catholic and 
apostolical church, extended from one end of the earth to 
the other, which is divided by cities, and towns, and vil- 
laofes : so that there are infinite and innumerable churches 



* Ecce Roma, ecce Carthago, ecce aliae et aliae civitates, filiae regum 
punt — et ex omnibus fit una quajdam regina." August on Ps. 44. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. Ill 

on the islands and continent; but all these are reduced to 
one, being united in the agreement of the same true doc- 
trine."* 

St. Jerome saith, " The church of Christ is not strayed 
from its limits, that is, from the Holy Scriptures. Those 
things which they invent and forge of themselves, as by 
apostolical tradition, without the authority and testimony 
of the Holy Scriptures, the word of God dasheth in 
pieces."! 

St. Lyrins (cap. 3) writes, ^'■Quod ubiqice, quod semper, 
quod ab omnibus creditum est, hoc est etenim vere et pro- 
prie catholicum,'''' Sic. " That which everywhere, at all 
times, and by all Christians, has been believed, that is in- 
deed truly and properly catholic. These doctrines, then, 
should be our first and principal care to find. For there is 
nothing truly catholic but w^hat truly and fully comprehends 
all these." And, (cap. 4,) " Whatever we find to have 
been taught by all, unanimously, clearly, and constantly, 
there let us fix our faith, and rest satisfied." Again, fol- 
lowing St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine in expounding 
Gal. i. 8, 9, Prseterquam quod evangelizavimus, Kat ax siTtsv, 
&c., thus he speaks : " He (the apostle) saith not, if they 
preach things contrary, but if they preach ever so little dif- 
ferent from the gospel which we have preached unto you, 
and, of course, in any degree contrary to it, let him be 
anathema." 

Again, (cap. xxx.) " The character of catholics is this, 
to preserve inviolably the sacred depositum of the holy fa- 
thers committed to their trust, to condemn profane novelties, 
and, as the apostle commanded over and over, to pronounce 
the anathema upon any one whatever who should attempt 
to preach another gospel." 

And (cap. 15) " Quid ergo si episcopus,'''' &lc. "What 
then, if a bishop, deacon, doctor, nay, or a martyr, should 
fall from the rule of faith, would this give a sanction to 
heresy ? Are we to try the truth by the man, or the man 
by his faith? But an inspired governor of the church, 

* Theod. in Ps. 47, torn. i. p. 589. 

f Ecclesia Christi non est egressa de finibus suis, i, e. de Sanctis 
Scripturis. Sed et alia quse absque autoritate et testimonio Scriptum 
rum, quasi traditione apostolica, sponte reperiunt, percutit gladius De:, 
Hieron. in Hagg. cap. 1. 



112 INFALLIBILITY 

Moses, will answer this question : Deut. xiii. ' If there 
arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams,' that is, 
a teacher in the church, so able as even to give thee 'a sign 
or wonder, and that that sign come to pass too.' AVell, and 
what then ? ' And if this prophet shall say unto thee, ' Let 
us go after other gods,' — what, I pray thee, are these gods, 
but strange errors, — 'let us serve them,' that is, 'let us 
believe these false doctrines and follow them.' AVell, and 
what is the conclusion ? ' Thou shalt not hearken to the 
words of that prophet, because the Lord your God proveth 
you, whether you love the Lord your God with all your 
heart and with all your soul.' This is, doubtless, a great 
and powerful proof of your love, when he, whom you look 
upon as a great prophet or doctor, and stickler for the truth, 
and whom you gready revere and love, privily drops his 
baneful errors, and so artfully mixes them with truth, that 
whilst you are so blinded by the authority of the deceiver, 
you cannot presently perceive the deceit, (and most hard it 
is to condemn the doctrine, whilst you admire the doctor,) 
and not to hearken to him or follow him ; this is, indeed, 
proof of love to God." Lyrins, cap. 15. 

And (cap. 17) he saith, " Keep, said the apostle to 
Timothy, this deposittwi, this talent of catholic faith, 
sacred and inviolable. Gold thou hast received, gold re- 
turn. Never go about, I charge thee, to put off one thing 
for another, nor ever have the impudence or knavery to 
downface the world with lead or copper for gold. Be sure 
to restore gold, not in resemblance only, but real, true, pure 
gold." 

Clemens of Alexandria writes, "No man is with us a 
Christian but he who is pious and religious ; so that this, 
in short, is our state that follow God. Such as are our de- 
sires, such are our discourses, and such as are our dis- 
courses, such are our actions, and such as are our actions, 
such is our life." Ad. Gen. p. 76. And, says Justin Mar- 
tyr, "Do any live otherwise then as Christ hath com- 
manded ? they are no Christians, though with their tongues 
they ever so smoothly profess the Christian doctrine." 
A.pol. cap. 2. 

St. Basil saith, "Let no man impose upon himself with 
mconsiderate words, saying. Though I am a sinner, yet I 
am a Christian. But hearken, sinner, all wicked men 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 113 

shall be bundled together in the great day of the divine ven- 
geance, and shall be indiscriminately thrown into the merci- 
less and devouring flames." In Isai. cap. 1. 

From all this most plain is it, that what renders a church 
truly Christian or catholic, is her holding and practising the 
pure gospel doctrine of Christ, and it only. And that this 
is the very judgment of all orthodox Protestant churches at 
this hour, differ as they may in minor matters, must from 
the following authorities be obvious to every candid person. 

A canon, set forth in 1571 by the reformed church of 
England, is, "That the clergy must never teach any thing, 
as matter of faith religiously to be observed, but that which 
is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, 
and also to the catholic fathers and ancient bishops of the 
church." Lib. Can. Eccles. Anglic, cap. vi. p. 19. 

Art. xix. of the church: "The visible church of Christ 
is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word 
of God is preached, and the sacraments duly ministered 
according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that are 
requisite to the same." Articles of Religion. 

Art. XX. "It is not lawful for the church to ordain any 
thing that is contrary to God's word written, neither may 
it expound one place in Scripture so as to be repugnant to 
another. Wherefore, though the church be a witness and 
a keeper of Holy Writ, yet it ought not to decree any thing 
against the same." — Ibid. 

Art. XXV. "There are two sacraments ordained by Chrisi 
our Lord in the gospel, that is to say, baptism and the Lord's 
supper." 

Art. vi. "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary 
to salvation ; so that whatever is not read therein nor may 
be proved thereby is not to be required of any man, that it 
should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought re- 
quisite or necessary to salvation-" 

The unity, the happy similarity of features, in the grand 
essentials of Christianity, of the ancient Christian churches 
with Christ's pure model church, and of all faithful Pro- 
testant churches with both, must, to every unprejudiced 
observer of the above documents, be most obvious. And, 
as the religion of these ancient churches was not of man, 
but from God himself, by his gospel and his grace sent 
down from heaven, so must it be evident to every honest 

10* 



114 INFALLIBILITY 

mind, that the religion of all informed and faithful Pro- 
testants is precisely from the same source, even the gospel 
and grace of God, and not in anywise from any human 
being, whether good or bad. For not the messenger, but 
the message of God, the gospel, embraced by faith, is the 
soul's salvation. That unity, with regard to any system 
of theology which men may please to adopt, can consist with 
a vast diversity of opinions in circumstantials, such as 
forms, phrases, and a variety of other matters, so that the 
body may possibly be divided into little communities, is 
matter of daily experience. Pagans are divided into their 
several castes, (each having its own brahmins,) ad infini- 
tum, yet no one denies that they are one great body of 
idolaters. The Jews had their Pharisees, Sadducees, Esse- 
nes, Herodians, Nazarites, &c., yet were they one church. 
In the church of Rome are clergy secular and regulars, with 
their many orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, 
Carmelites shod and unshod, Jesuits, &c. &c., all differing 
from each other in minor matters, opinions, forms, regula- 
tions, &c., and often found sharply contending with one 
another, as was the case of the Jansenists and Jesuits, 
Franciscans and Dominicans, in reference to the immacu- 
late conception of the Blessed Virgin, freewill, grace, <fec. 
&c., yet they all are one body, subject to one faith and 
one head, the pope and his creed. If, then, Protestants be 
thus found divided into different communities, and having 
minor differences in non-essentials, such as forms, opinions, 
and discipline, yet rejecting all human doctrines and all 
teachers that vary from Christ, and cleaving to him and his 
faith or gospel alone, according to the best of their judg- 
ments before God, who can wonder or can deny that they 
all are one body in Christ — one great Christian church? 
I say, who, on rational principles — who, save some splenetic 
bigot, can possibly deny that they all are Christ's ? For 
their gospel, their worship, their sacraments,* and their 
aversion to all false doctrines are the same as those of the 
ancient churches, and of that of Christ and his apostles. I 

* St. Augustine (Epist. 1 18, ad Januar.) says, concerning the sacra- 
ments of Christ's ancient church, ("Sacramentis in Jiumero paucissi' 
mis, in observatione fadUiniis, in signijicatione prasstantissiniis, SociC' 
Intern novi popuU colligavit.^^) "In number the fewest, two only, easy 
to be observed, and in meaning most sublime." 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 

maintain, therefore, that all those Protestants that are tl. 
faithful are one body in Christ, even as so many branches 
in one vine, some more beautiful, luxuriant, and productive 
than others, yet all bearing fruit similar in quality belong 
to the same parent. On this point I have been thus parti- 
cular, because that on the one hand designing men, who 
lie in wait to deceive, have hereby very often succeeded in 
leading astray those who do not observe it; and, on the 
other, there have not been wanting some rash men, who, 
not possessing just discernment, and mistaking, like the 
apostles " who forbade the good man that had not followed 
with them,"* have ignorantly slighted, nay, persecuted their 
own brethren in Christ, whom, because of some frivolous 
difference in non-essentials, they unwittingly looked on as 
enemies ! By this species of ignorance, immense mischief 
has been done to the cause of God on earth. And it should 
not be forgotten that the inspired penman tells us. That, 
even in his day, (because in this our imperfect state such is 
our weakness, we know in part only. 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 12,) 
of those who had em.braced the gospel, "one said I am of 
Paul, another I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of 
Christ." 1 Cor. i. 12. And thus they had their minor 
differences ; but who will say that for this they were not 
nevertheless one in Christ? Not to notice this with deep 
attention must evince extreme weakness of intellect, or great 
malignity and bigotry. And if against Christ and his gos- 
pel church the gates of hell can never prevail, then, as no 
informed Protestants have any faith but that from Heaven, 
the gospel only, so must it follow that the gates of hell can 
never prevail against faithful Protestants or their churches. 
For let evil men plot as they may, greater is he that is for 
them than all that are against them. With the pious Wes- 
ley, then, can they individually and collectively sing — 

" A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, 
A never-dying soul to save, and fit it for the sky. 
Arm me with jealous care, as in thy sight to live, 
And O, thy servant Lord, prepare, a strict account to give. 
Help me to watch and pray, and on thyself rely, 
\ssured, if I my trust betray, I shall forever die." 

* Luke ix. 49. 



INFALLIBILITY 



-'OCTOR MILNER THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, ETC. 

That there were among the Jews false prophets, and a 
synagogue of Satan ; that among Christians would aris3 
" an apostate and false churchy with the man of sin, the 
son of perdition, at its head ;" and that even in the days of 
the apostles, " this mystery of iniquity, the lust of do.ni- 
nancy, was already working," the Scriptures testify. But 
as this subject shall come under more particular discussion 
when I shall come to the latter day apostacy, I shall here 
be brief. 

The famed Doctor Milner, in his book, the "End of 
Controversy," which now is looked on in some sort as the 
standard of the Roman Catholic clergy and people, and 
their text-book, has 122 pages in part ii. solely on his 
church, to prove that she only is God's church. But I must 
take the liberty of proving against him, that in the whole 
he has not one sound — one tenable argument ; nay, that he 
has been only beating the air, and casting dust into his 
readers' eyes ! He spends his strength first in vilifying the 
Protestant Reformers, on pretence of their being the authors 
of the Protestant religion, which he therefore insinuates is, 
as it were, of yesterday — is a corrupt novelty only ; whereas, 
having their books and articles before his eyes, (as above 
stated,) all disclaiming every religion save that which is 
from God himself — even the gospel, and his grace which 
comes by the Holy Ghost from heaven, he, therefore, must 
have known that he was deliberately slandering them ; than 
v/hich, what more desperate iniquity can be conceived ? 
The palliative of ignorance cannot be allowed in his case. 
And, secondly, he defends, at great length, what nobody 
disputes — the purity of Christ's ancient church! This he 
did as a ruse, to make men think that his church is pre- 
cisely the same ; whereas, the truth is, no two things can 
more widely differ! But could he have but shown us that 
our gospel varies from Christ's, or that Pope Pius IV. 's 
creed is in unison with the gospel, then had he done some- 
thing to purpose. When neither of these, however, could 
he have done, silence then had best become him. This no 
candid man will deny. That this whole book of his is, I 
am constrained to say, a tissue of abuse, misrepresentation, 
and mere sophistry, mixed up with an artful affectation of 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 117 

sincerity, the better to make it pass with the unwary, (a 
practice generally adopted by the writers on that side,) ic a 
matter that shall, I judge, be quickly made clear as the light 
to the most superficial observer. Here we shall adduce 
some specimens of this species of craftiness and warfare, at 
which every pious and sensible man must blush. 

I. In his Address, to the Right Reverend the Bishop of 
St. David's, (pp. 19, 20,) he writes, " My lord, whatever 
excuse there may be for the inconsistency of other men, 
there would evidently be none, in religious matters, for per- 
sons of your lordship's and the writer's profession and 
situation, should they, for their prejudices or temporal ad- 
vantage, mislead others in a matter of eternal consequence. 
Such conduct would be hypocritical, perfidious, and ruin- 
ous. In fact, my lord, if, as Christ assures us, some of the 
arraigned, at the great day of universal trial, will rise up 
against others and condemn them for their peculiar guilt, 
(Matt. xii. 41,) how heavy a condemnation will poor bewil- 
dered souls call down upon those faithless guides who have 
led them astray ! Or rather, how severe a vengeance will 
the good Shepherd himself, who laid down his life for his 
sheep, take of those hirelings, who have not only left his 
sheep to be caught and scattered by the wolf, but have 
themselves killed and destroyed them ! (John x.) For all 
these important motives, let us, my lord, dismiss every 
selfish interest, human respect, and prejudice, from our 
minds, in the discussion of religious subjects, and, with the 
utmost sincerity and ardour of our souls, follow truth 
whithersoever she leads us." 

What an expression of sincerity, and of apparently deep 
piety have we here ! Who could for a moment entertain 
any suspicion of the least unfair dealing in any man, a 
divine, especially, who could thus express himself before 
God ? Facts, however, are stubborn things ; they are too 
mighty when put in competition with mere words. But we 
must hear him a litde more. 

II. Writing to Mr. Brown, (part ii. letter xiv. p. 5,) he 
says, "Dear sir — Nothing is more clear to natural reason, 
than that God cannot be the author of different religions ; 
for being the Eternal Truth, he cannot reveal contradictory 
doctrines ; and being at the same time the Eternal Wisdom, 
and God of Peace, he cannot establish a kingdom divided 



118 INFALLIBILITY 

against itself. Hence it follows, that the church of Chri-st 
must be strictly ONE ; one in doctrine, one in woj'sJiip, 
and one in government. The mark of UNITY in the 
true church is also clear from holy writ : ' There shall be 
oxE FOLD and one Shepherd.^ John x. 18. 'I pray for all 
that shall believe in me, that they may be one.' xvii. 21. 
In like manner St. Paul inculcates the unity of the church, 
saying, ' We being- many, are one body in Christ.' Rom. 
xii. 5. And again, ' There is one body and one spirit, one 
Lord, ONE FAITH, and one baptism.' Eph. iv. 4, 5. • 

III. "Now, sir, I maintain it, (saith he, let. 16,) that 
this original and great church, called the Catholic church, 
is, and ever has been, strictly ONE, in all the above men- 
tioned particulars, and first in her faith and terms of com- 
munion. The same creeds, namely, the Apostles' creed, 
the Nicene creed, the Athanasian creed, and the creed of 
Pope Pius IV., drawn up in conformity with the definitions 
of the council of Trent, are everywhere recited and pro- 
fessed to the strict letter : and the same articles of faith and 
morality are taught in all our catechisms," &c. 

He (in letter 50) outdoes, if possible, all that went before. 
Saith he, " It remains, my dear friends and brethren, for 
each of you to take his and her part ; but remember that 
the part you severally take is taken for eternity ! On this 
occasion, therefore, if ever, you ought to reflect and decide 
seriously and conscientiously, dismissing all worldly respects 
of whatever kind, from your minds ; ' for what exchange 
shall a man receive for his soul V (Mat. xvi. 20;) and what 
will the prejudiced opinion of your fellow-mortals avail you 
at the tribunal, where we are all so soon to appear, and in 
the vast abyss of eternity in which we shall quickly be all 
ingulfed ? Will any of them plead your cause at the bar ! 
or will your punishment be more tolerable from their 
sharing in it? Finally, with all the fervour and sincerity 
of your souls, beseech your future Judge, who is now your 
merciful Saviour, to bestow upon you that light to see your 
way, and that strength to follow it, which he merited for 
you, when he hung for three hours your agonizing victim 
on the cross. 

"Adieu, my dear friends and brethren; we shall soon 
meet together at the tribunal I have mentioned ; and be as 
sured that I look forward to that meeting with a perfect 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 119 

confidence, that you and I, and the great Judge himself, 
shall all concur in approbation of the advice I now give 

you. J, MiLNER." 

Bossuet, Bishop of Meux, in his " Exposition," writes, 
" There is ever this unfortunate fact standing against here- 
tics, which they have never been able to palliate, that of 
their novelty,'''' &c. 

Doctor Manning saith, " The church of Christ can only 
be that which believes wholly and entirely the doctrine 
taught by Christ, and delivered by his apostles. If the 
church would teach any one point of faith contrary to the 
revealed word of God, she would lose all faith, and would 
cease to be the chaste spouse of Christ, but would be a 
harlot, and the school of Satan; and the gates of hell 
would prevail against her." &c. — Short Method with Pro- 
testants, p. 29 — 52. 

This much from these divines is a specimen more than 
enough, first, of their bold but wholly untenable assump- 
tions, as well as of their glaring and shameful self-contra- 
dictions ; and secondly, of the awful unity or agreement 
of these men, and indeed of all their modern writers espe- 
cially, to adopt this most fraudfid plan. For what can be 
more shameful or more fraudful thd^n to take for granted what 
■. iiould be first proved, and what none can grant? and to 
assume, in the face of the plainest facts, as divint3 and incon- 
testable truths, what are direct opposites, and falsehoods most 
p;i,lpable ? Than which, what course more base, impious, and 
odious, in the eyes of every honest man, and of God, could 
possibly be conceived, and the more especially when it is 
considered, that soul concerns — even the eternal destinies 
of multitudes — are involved ? 

What man, I again repeat it, after perusing these extracts, 
replete with so much apparent piety and sincerity, and put 
forth with such nerve, too, but would be led to look on the 
whole as sterling, as indubitable truth ? That any deception 
could in any wise be plotted by such men, who for a mo- 
ment could possibly suspect? But the sequel will more 
than prove how much we maybe mistaken. Such wicked- 
ness and hypocrisy, as facts evince the existence of, can 
scarce be possible. 

In reference to these extracts from these learned bishops, 
to none of them, save one, could any informed Christian 



120 INFALLIBILITY 

possibly object, did he not know their utter inconsistency 
with the principles of these writers. But what, if they 
believed not themselves ! Nay, if it be made clear as 
noon-day, they did not believe a word of it ; what will 
Dr. Milner's admirers then think of all this ; and what 
must be not only their astonishment, but horror, when, after 
all these his professions of piety and sincerity, they shall 
find he by no means believed what he was saying? To 
come then at the point at once, we shall ask only one sim- 
ple question, Can any sensible man when he contradicts 
himself think he speaks truth? Can any man in his senses 
believe that the opposite of what he knows to be truth is 
truth ? or that things that vary from one another are yet the 
same ? But Dr. Milner was no idiot ; he, surely, had the 
use of his reason, and withal was a well-informed, studious, 
and acute theologian ; it must follow, then, if no such man 
who contradicts himself can believe himself, that he (Dr. 
Milner) did not in any wise believe himself in what he 
wrote ; and therefore that he knowingly and deliberately 
designed to mislead his readers. (This applies to the 
others, and to all such writers too.) This charge is of so 
serious and so astounding a nature, that nothing short of the 
clearest facts possible can at all justify it. If such facts, 
however, can be brought to substantiate it, every one will 
allow the writer would be criminal against God and man 
had he concealed them. 

We must then proceed to the proofs that Dr. Milner did 
not believe himself; and also, by 2. few observations, shall 
overthrow not only his 122 pages in defence of his church, 
but his whole book, on which he bestowed so much time 
and labour. This, I trust, every candid man must be con-' 
strained by the force of truth presently to admit. 

In the second paragraph (letter xiv. to Mr. Brown, part 
ii.) the doctor lays down these premises: "That God can- 
not be the author of different religions, or of contradictory 
doctrines ; and that he could not have established a king- 
dom divided against itself. Hence, that the church of Christ 
must be strictly ONE ; one in doctrine, in worship, in go- 
vernment,^^ &c. Than all this, nothing can be more true. 
He adds, " Now, sir, I maintain it, as a notorious fact, that 
this oiiginal and great church, called the (Roman) Catholic 
church, is, and ever has been, strictly one in all the above- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 121 

mentioned particulars : and, first, in her faith and terms of 
communion," (that is, worship and government.) " The 
same creeds — the Apostles' creed, the Nicene, the Athana- 
sian, and the creed of Pope Pius IV., are everywhere pro- 
fessed to the strict letter." 

Here we lay hold on and arrest the doctor ! Who will 
now come forward to say that he believes himself when 
writing this paragraph? By his mention of the Trent creed 
of Pius IV., though he left out the term " Roman," yet it 
is plain that by " this original great catholic church," he 
meant the church of Rome. That the gospel only was the 
faith of Christ's original church., and of all the ancient 
churches, those of the first three centuries especially, before 
Arianism and other errors sprung up, none will attempt to 
deny ; nor to the three creeds first mentioned, that were 
framed afterwards, do I conceive there can be any solid or 
well-grounded objection. But how the creed of Pius IV., 
framed more than 1500 after Christ, and at this moment 
found at complete variance with the gospel, and with the 
other three creeds, is, or ever was in any wise the faith of 
Christ's original catholic church, or of the ancient churches, 
we wish to see proved. But if no man that ever lived can 
show or prove it, then the doctor's " notorious fact'' turns 
up to be a palpable notorious falsehood.' Again, "If no- 
thing is really cathoHc but what was believed (semper) 
always, (ubique,) in all places, [et ab omnibus,) and by all 
Christians," as saith St. V. Lyrius, how then is it a "noto- 
rious fact" that Pope Pius's new faith is the faith of all 
ages, (fee, or is at all Catholic? Who will maintain this? 
None. To call that new and corrupt faith, catholic, is 
therefore to be guilty of another " notorious untruth." 

We maintain that Pope Pius's creed is opposed to the 
gospel and to Christ, and that the articles of that faith in- 
volve necessary self-contradiction : instance, the proper 
sacrifice of the wmss, the supreme adoration of the bread 
or wafer, the worship of the cup, the offering them up for 
the souls in purgatory, invoking angels and departed 
saints, rosaries, private confessions, indulgences, ex- 
treme unctions, jubilees, worship in a forbidden tongue, 
celibacy, supremacy, &;c. &c. This litde volume proves 
all this. How then, we, thirdly, ask, can it be "maintained 
as a notorious fact''' that all these self-opposing and gospei- 
11 



122 INFALLIBILITY 

opposing doctrines ever have been, or now are, strictly 
ONE with the doctrines of Christ, or are the faith of his 
gospel and original church? When it cannot be maintained, 
it tl^en is a third falsehood. 

Another " notorious fact" of our sapient doctor is, " that 
the worship of his church of Rome is, and ever was, orie, 
strictly 07ie w^ith Christ's original church." Not a word 
of this did he or could he have believed ! For, passing by 
that his Trent creed is at variance with the other three 
creeds, as well as with the gospel, we ask a fourth ques- 
tion. Did Christ's original church ever practise the follow- 
ing many sorts of religious worship, viz. : — 1. The adora- 
tion of the sacramental bread ; 2. Of the cup ; 3. The wor- 
ship of angels and of saints by invocation ; 4. The worship 
of images by bowing down before them with prayers and 
uncovered head ; 5. The worship of sacred relics ; and, 
6. The worshipping in a foreign tongue, &c. ? Who can 
now answer for him ? If no answer can be given, is not 
this another "notorious falsehood," and "unfortunate no- 
velty?" 

Again, could Dr. Milner have believed " it to be a noto- 
rious fact" that his seven sacraments are o?ze, strictly one, 
with those of the original Catholic church? We have 
shown, on extreme unction, in treating on the ancient sacra- 
ments, (p. 63,) that the ancients, as well as the gospel, 
testify that only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's 
supper, were ordained by Christ, or found in the original 
church ; and we have proved that holy orders and extreme 
unction could not consist together. If this fact also cannot 
be maintained, is it not another falsehood ? Now, as all 
these are contradictions, who will say the doctor believed 
them as truths? 

Lastly, GOVERNMENT. The doctor "maintains as a no- 
torious fact," that "his church is in government strictly 
one with the original Catholic church." Where is he who 
can support this ? We have abundantly proved that he has 
hitherto failed in every point to uphold his assumptions, 
and showed his doctrines, sacraments, &c., at variance with 
truth. We now do the same here: we demand, has God 
ever appointed any persons, who teach doctrines and sacra- 
ments at variance with himself and his gospel, to govern 
his church ? When it is plain Christ never sent any such, 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 123 

but said, ♦' Beware of false prophets — you shall know them 
by their fruits;" who sent them? save one of themselves, 
their head the pope. How, then, are such governors and 
government strictly one with the pure original church, 
whose pastors and government were to these the very 
opposite? Here, then, again, is his "notorious fact" a 
notorious contradiction to all truth. And hence most 
plain is it that neither did Dr. Milner, nor Dr. Manning, 
nor Bossuet, believe themselves when they made such pro- 
fessions ! ! ! 

As " God is not the author of different religions or of 
contradictory doctrines, nor ever set up a kingdom — a 
church divided against itself," as the doctor states: and as 
it is now proved that the doctrines, the worship, the sacra- 
ments, and the government of the doctor's or the pope's 
church are quite at variance with those of Christ's original 
great catholic church, it must then instantly follow from 
these premises that it is impossible that God is the author 
of the religion, of the worship, or of the sacraments of the 
church of Rome, or of her government. Who then is her 
real author can now be no secret to any man of the least 
mind. And having proved the doctor's creed is at variance 
with Christ, his gospel, and the old creeds, so is his cate- 
chism also with God's commandments ; that, against image- 
worship, the second, is left out, as is the fourth also (save 
one line) — " Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy 
work," and holydays are daringly set up in opposition to 
it; and the tenth is split into two, to make the people think 
they have the ten in Exodus. From these few observations 
what now is the conclusion, the necessary conclusion, and 
which fearlessly challenges all his admirers on earth to 
obviate ; what is it but this, in the first place, that the 
whole of his book is a heap of mere sophistries and misre- 
presentations, which, at the touch of truth, fly like chaff 
before a storm? 2d. That as his church and doctrines, &c., 
are found opposed to Christ, and as it is granted that what 
'is opposed to Christ is antichrist, so must he be their au- 
thor ! Tremendous ! 3d. That as those doctors could not 
be supposed ignorant of these arguments, nor of the writ- 
ings of their own learned men, as Cardinals Fisher,* D'Al 

* Fisher, de Captiv. Babyl. c. 10. 



124 INFALLIBILITY 

iiaco,* Cajetan,t Drs. Scotus,:}: Durand,§ Polydore Virgil, 
Lindan, Clemangis, Salmeron, Bannes, and many otliers, 
confessing that transubstantiation, the worship of the eucha- 
rist, half-communion, purgatory, indulgences, &c., are new 
doctrines, and cannot be proved by Scripture, and there- 
fore are mere human fabrications, and of course are, as 
Bossuet and Manning say, "novelties and heresies," and 
" that the church that teacheth them is not the spouse of 
Christ, but an harlot, and the school of Satan, against 
which the gates of hell have prevailed;" how then, with 
ail these facts before their eyes, could all their professions 
of piety and sincerity be possibly looked on other than as 
hypocritical falsehoods before God? 

4. That v/hen the faith, worship, and government of all 
informed and faithful Protestant churches are essentially 
one with the ancient churches and with each other, though 
divided in minor opinions or forms, like fair and stunted 
branches in one vine, who in his senses should stay one 
hour from the same, or one hour in the church that has so 
undeniably apostatized from the primitive faith? 

It being an admitted fact, "that false doctrine and its 
teachers are accursed of God, and that the church which 
hath them is indeed prevailed against by Satan, and is his 
scliool and synagogue," when these doctors, Milner and his 
brethren, are thus found teaching so many doctrines at va- 
riance with Christ, and so many sorts of worship opposed 
to him, and are sworn so to teach all their days, most clear 
then is it to the weakest capacity that against their church 
and them Satan hath prevailed. But it is granted, " wicked- 
ness or mortal sin is another engine whereby the gates of 
hell prevail against the church," — now it is allowed by all 
the papal clergy! "that there are seven deadly sins; six 
against the Holy Ghost ; four crying sins ; and ten against 
the ten commandments, together with all those in the cata- 
logues of the Old Testament and of the new, all mortal, 
and any one of which corrupts and destroys the soul : and 

* D'Alliaco, 4 Sent. qu. 6, art. 1. 
f Cajetaa apud Saurez, torn. 3, disp. 44. 
i Scot, ill 4 Sent. cap. 2, qu. 4. 
§ Durand, 4 Sent. dist. 10, qu. 1. 

Ij See Dr. Challoner's "Meditations," and " Catholic Christian," Man 
ning's " Mor. Entert." Gallagher's " Irish Sermons," &c. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITT. 125 

that any layman or clergyman who by practice or desire 
allows himself in any of them, (let his zeal for the pope or 
his church be ever so great, it profits him nothing,) is not 
of the church of Christ, but belongs to the devil, and is of 
his synagogue." Should then all the clergy and people 
found daily practising these or any of these sins, be but 
put out of the papal church, as Christ in that dread day 
shall separate all such sinners from his people and kingdom 
forever, who would remain? Would one out of a thousand 
escape? Where then is the church of Christ? Were the 
king's army thus found corrupted by rebellion, so that scarce 
one of a thousand was free, would it not be allowed that it 
had ceased to be his, and had gone over to his enemy? 
Who of any candour, therefore, can for an instant deny that 
the gates of hell have, by much heresy and wickedness, 
awfully prevailed against the church of Rome? " Her sins 
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered h^^r 
iniquities, therefore go out of her, that you receive not of 
her plagues." Rev. xviii. Rhemish. 

Dr. Milner having totally failed in the first and chief 
mark of his church, that of "divine unity'*'' with Christ's 
universal church, in either "doctrine, worship, or govern- 
ment," he must then necessarily fail in all his other marks 
also, viz. sanctity, catholicity, apostolicity, and miracles. 
For as corruption cannot produce purity, his doctrines and 
worship being found opposed to Christ, cannot, of course, 
possibly produce sanctity, nor therefore have any affinity 
to catholicity or apostolicity, nor can any miracles be ever 
wrought in such a church except " those of the three frogs." 
Rev. xvi. 13. For to afiirm that God, who cannot lie or 
endure a lie, would grant divine miracles to support false 
doctrines or lies, is not only absurd, but the highest blas- 
phemy. Having thus exhibited Christ's genuine church, 
and the utter falsity of Dr. Milner's, — and having, by these 
few observations, overturned this whole third part of his 
crafty production, and exposed its sophistries beyond possi- 
bility of contradiction, I must now, before I proceed further, 
close this article on infallibility. 

If it be ridiculous in any church whose doctrmes ?nd 

worship are thus most corrupt, to claim infcdlibility , when 

the popes and councils of the Roman Catholic church are 

found thus in many corruptions and self-contradictions, such 

11* 



126 INFALLIBILITY 

claim by them must be monstrous. We have already ad- 
duced popes and their churches respectively vehemently 
contending against each other; sometimes two, and even 
three at a time. Some of these wonderful heads were con- 
demned of heresy. Pope Liberius, in the fourth century, 
subscribing the Sirmian decrees, became an Arian, as did 
Pope Felix; and, in fact, as St. Jerome tells us, ("ingemuit 
totus mundus et Arianum se esse rairatus," Dialog, advcr. 
Lucif. c. 7,) " The whole world groaned, and wondered at* 
itself to have become Arian;" so that all the bishops and 
clergy at that time of blindness became Arians, except 
Athenasius and three or four more. When the whole of the 
bishops, nearly, with Liberius, the pope, at their head, 
were thus Arians, was their church then infallible? Canus, 
a papal writer, records that Pope Honorias was, according 
to Epiphanius, Bede, and also to the seventh general coun- 
cil, convicted of the heresy of Monothelism.* The council 
of Nice, (An. 325,) consisting of three hundred and eighteen 
bishops, made two decrees, one against any appeals of ex- 
communicated persons to remote churches— the other (Can. 
6) is, Mos antiquus in Egypto, &c., "The old custom re- 
mains, that the government in Egypt, Lybia, and Persa- 
polis should belong to the Alexandrian bishop, because the 
Bishop of Rome also hath the same old custom over the 
snburbical cities. Let Antioch and other provinces have 
their privileges.! St. Augustine, in a council of two hun- 
dred and seventeen bishops, reproved three popes, viz. Zo- 
zimus, Boniface, and Celestine, for forgery of a canon in 
the council of Nice, "because, that as God does not endue 
a single man with justice and deny it to innumerable others, 
so each bishop is to mind his own charges, and not inter- 
fere with others." 

In the space of five hundred and forty years, twenty-two 
hundred and eighty bishops, who composed eight general 
councils, decreed against the pope and the church of Rome, 
and condemned their pretensions ; first, by limiting the 
Roman diocese in common with other patriarchs; secondly, 
by equalizing the Bishops of Constantinople with those of 

* " Honorium quomodo ab errore vindicabis quem hsereticum fuisse 
Iradit Epiphanius, Beda, totaq. deuique septima synodus." — Canus loc. 
Ij^eol. 1. 65. 

j- Binnias, torn. 1. in cone. Nice 1, cone. Eph. 434. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 127 

Rome, as both being- imperial cities, (hence not on the 
ground of any divine right;) thirdly, in preventing the Bishops 
of Rome or others from ordaining any bishop in the Isle 
of Cyprus; the fourth and second do the same; fifth con- 
demns the sentence of Pope Virgilius ; the sixth and seventh 
condemn Pope Honorius (as above ;) the eighth imposes a 
canon on the church of Rome to prevent their Sunday feasts 
in Lent, saying, "We will this canon be constantly observed 
'm the church of Rome." 4th con. Constantinople. Bin- 
nius, tom. 3, p. 149. 

St. Cyprian, in the second century, called a council of 
eighty-seven bishops, and condemned Pope Victor's ex- 
communication of the bishops of Asia, in regard to Easter. 
Firmilianus affirmed, " Victor hereby hath cut himself oflf 
from the flock of Christ." 

Pope Gelasius, (anno 496.) upon some Christians tainted 
with Manicheism, (who believed that as wine causeth in- 
toxication it must therefore be of the devil,) refusing to par- 
take of the cup in the last supper, decreed as follows : — 
"That such as did not receive the eucharist in both kinds 
should be excluded from both : because one and the same 
mystery cannot be divided without sacrilege." Also, "That 
the sacramental elements cease not to be of the nature and 
substance of bread and wine."* To this did all his clergy 
agree. But the very contrary of all this did Pope Martin 
V. and the council of Constance decree, anno 1414, sess. 
13, as did Pius IV. and the council of Trent, anno 1564, 
saying, " That after the consecration no bread or wine 
remain." Trid. sess. 13, can. 1; sess. 21, can. 2. 

And the council of Nice, anno 325, and of Ephesus, anno 
334, decree, with an anathema, " That no new article for- 
ever shall be added to the creed or faith of Nice." But the 
council of Trent, in more than twelve hundred years after, 
add twelve new articles to this very creed, pronouncing an 
anathema " on all who will not embrace them." 

Now we ask, were all these self-contradictory popes and 
councils infallible ? The church of Rome says they were ! ! ! 
And every pope is sworn to support their decisions, and to 
uphold and enforce them to the least tittle, "even to the 
shedding of his blood." Con. Constance, sess. 39; con 
Basil, sess. 37. 

* Gel. de duab. naf.uris, cont. Eutych. 



128 INFALLIBILITY 

Now, let every man of the least sense consider all these 
arguments, thus plainly laid before him, against the infalli- 
bility of the church of Rome and the supremacy of her 
popes, and ask himself, is there a titde of truth in these 
claims, — councils against councils, popes against popes, 
creeds against creeds, — distracting the world, and destroy- 
ing Jhe souls and bodies of men? And now, reverend sir, 
say, is this infallibility^ that is the parent of all these mis- 
chiefs, of God ? If you say it is of God, you are undone, 
because it is blasphemy ; and if you must own it is not, 
you are undone, for your strong rock is destroyed and your 
church overturned, and all her usurpations and pretensions 
fallen to the ground ; conscience is rendered independent, 
and Scripture the only safe rule of faith, and thus both are, . 
by the force of common sense and truth, forever emanci- 
pated from the dire and degrading shackles of papal infalli- 
bility. And as it most clearly is not of God, it must follow 
that it is of satanic origin, is of the very " spirit of proud 
antichrist," as saith Gregory the Great, which is come forth 
to oppose God, and destroy man by his fell seductions. 

And is not this that very destroyer of whom the holy 
prophesies warn us, " that was to come with all deceivable- 
ness of unrighteousness," to turn away the world from the 
faith, and would lead them after fables and false dogmas ; 
and that would also cause them to persecute and murder the 
saints, even those who follow the gospel ? Is not this he 
of whom it is said by St. John, that " he would continue 
forty-two months, i. e. twelve hundred and sixty years, 
the man of sin sitting in the temple of God, during all these 
ages, {by succession, of course, as one man could not live 
so long,) still upholding the very same system of iniquity. 
As the reign of this dynasty began in 606, it must now soon 
come to a close.* 

We have no thought that these arguments, that have been 
advanced to prove that this infallibility and its church are 
the enemies of the human race as well as of the Lord, will 
ever be answered. It now, therefore, remains for every 

* 606 added to 1260 years, are 1866; take the present year, 1827, 
from this, 39 remain. Take 5} days, (being the difference between the 
ancient year of 360 days and the year of 3605^,) and multiply these 
by the 1260, it makes nearly 19 years, which taken from 39, leave about 
20 years to close the scene. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 129 

one concerned about his soul to make his choice, either to 
side with Christ, and his gospel and people — even those 
who follow him and it, or with this infallible deception and 
its partisans. Choosing this latter, they must expect the 
result, the threatened result — " they shall drink of the wine 
of the wrath of God, and the smoke of their torments shall 
ascend up forever and ever." Rev. xiv. But if they wisely 
submit to the former, and take his holy counsel, "Come 
out of her my people, that ye receive not of her plagues," 
Rev. xviii., such shall save their souls alive. 

I shall now return to Dr. Milner, and let my reader see 
the manner in which he essays to support, but how feebly! 
those points which I have examined and overturned. We 
have already seen the full third of his book, with all his 
lofty claims to the church of Christ, prostrated, as in a trice, 
by a few plain matter-of-fact observations. With regard to 
extreme unction, he has on it an elaborate letter, (part iii. 
letter 44,) in which he says not a Vk^ord to purpose, except 
belying St. James and contradicting himself, and the gos- 
pel, and all antiquity, be sound arguments ! He well knew 
there can be no true sacrament without Christ's own insH- 
tution of it ; which, when he saw in this case he could 
not find, he rolls it over at once on St. James that he found 
it, and had formed this sacrament ! Whereas, it is most 
evident, that the apostle spake of no sacrament for the dying, 
but of the Lord's mercy in healing or raising up to health 
the sick, by a miracle, as I have already fully explained. 
Moreover, he knew from the gospel and the ancients — St. 
Augustine and others, with Pope Innocent, whom he men- 
tions, but suppresses his words, and also from Cardinal 
Cajetan, &c. &c. — that no such sacrament had existed, and 
that only tivo were divinely instituted in our Lord's life- 
time, but after his death none ; yet he desperately contra- 
dicts the whole, as every one who reads him may see. 
Now if in this he can be vindicated, let it be done. 

On his seven sacraments he treats in letter 20. The two 
which the gospel teaches, baptism and the Lord's supper, 
he miserably mangles, and turns them from their divine 
design. The first, which is ministered " In the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," 
should call to our recollection, that the baptized should con- 
sider themselves bound to the ten command^iients of the 



130 INFALLIBILITY 

Father : to Christ and his gospel, to obey them ; and to 
yield themselves to the Holy Ghost, — to dwell in them all 
their days, in order to bring forth his heavenly fruits. But 
instead of this, all men, by the papal baptism, are bound to 
receive mutilated commandments — the second and fourth, 
mostly, being suppressed — and to obey the pope and his 
creed, which are flatly opposed to the law and gospel, as 
these sheets clearly demonstrate. And the eucharist is 
similarly treated in a vast diversity of w^ays, which shall 
presently be made manifest; and all to subserve the unwor- 
thy purposes of domination over mankind. With regard to 
the other five, conscious, as he unavoidably was, that Christ 
never did appoint them, he is obliged to say, " Though 
these holy rites had not been endued by Christ with a 
sacrainental grace, yet practised, as they are, in the catho- 
lic church, they should still be considered great helps to 
piety and Christian morality; and what I have asserted 
concerning these Jive sacraments in general, is particularly 
true with respect to the sacrament of penance,^ ^ &c. Here 
the truth slips out, that he w^as w'ell aware Christ is not the 
author of these five ; and yet he dares impute them to him ! 
Nor were they owned or practised in the original catholic 
church ; hence, most clear is it, that that catholic church 
and the Roman church are not one, but direct opposites. 
And he tells " that they are helps to piety. ^^ Now, what 
less is this than saying, that the Lord, who appointed them 
not, was a defective teacher ! and that his pope and church 
teach the ways of God more truly ? If this be not blas- 
phemy, let common sense judge ; and if such pretended 
sacraments — such human corruptions, that thus involve ne- 
cessary blasphemy — can " be helps to piety and morality," 
and not the very reverse, let all concerned for their eternal 
destiny well consider, and see if, after this, they should 
venture upon any such sacraments or human inventions, 
and which are, indeed, confessed such ! penance or private 
confession especially, which, as he most extols, should 
therefore be most avoided. 

In reference to the doctrine of " intention," he passes it 
over very slightly; and "infallibility" he cannot defend, 
except he could make infallible corruption infallible purity. 
On "supremacy" he is very w^eak indeed; he tries to prop 
it up by some quibbles. (Letter 46.) He has not, how- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITr. 131 

ever, a single solid argument in his twelve laboured pages 
on it. Whoever will read what I have advanced, shall find 
all his assertions to be empty as air. He asserts " St. Peter 
derived it from our Lord." Matt. xvi. 18. Whereas, in a 
few verses after this text, Christ calls him *' Satan;" and, 
as I have already showed, forbids all supremacy and pride, 
on pain of eternal wo. And he must grant, that nothing 
that he might pretend to adduce from the fathers, when it 
would go to contradict Christ or plain facts, can for a mo- 
ment be listened to ; and the more especially as I have met 
and silenced all such allegations, and now challenge their 
disproof. He unblushingly represents Origen and Cyprian 
as affirming, " that the church is built on Peter, and that 
Rome is the mother church and root of catholicity,^^ in 
flat contradiction to the apostle, or rather to the Holy Ghost 
which inspired him, calling "Jerusalem the mother of all," 
(Gal. iv. 26,) and also "the root,'' (Rom. xi. 18 — 24,) 
and " that the foundation of the apostles and prophets is 
the same." Eph. ii. 20. Who can depend on a man that 
thus states against God himself, in any thing he says ? 
Nay, what he could believe himself, was impossible. He 
here argues, " That, as some special dignity was conferred 
on Peter," (a thing that nobody denies,) "he therefore was 
made supreme." But this is false, as it confounds primacy 
(Peter being the first, after Christ's resurrection, to preach 
the gospel to Jews and Gentiles) with supremacy. And 
this is his art and strength ! But every novice may know 
that one may be foreman of a jury, and yet have no power 
or voice beyond any of the rest — no dominancy over them. 
Hence, as his arguing is all mere froth and talk, he makes 
out nothing ! 

All his book is of this character — all elaborate sophistry ; 
and in no part is it more palpably so than in the first — that 
on the true rule of faith. Here he egregiously commits 
himself; he says and unsays in the same breath. He 
affirms, " Christ did not intend men should learn their reli- 
gion from a book, but from preaching; that he wrote no- 
thing, nor commanded his aposdes to write, but to preach." 
Yet he presently tells us, " That Christ inspired them to 
ivrite the gospels and other parts of the New Testament ;" 
and " that the Scripture is not d. perfect rule of faith;"" yet 
" that on reading the New Testament, we have the strongest 



132 INFALLIBILITY 

proofs of its being an infallible guide in tlie way of salva- 
tion ;" and, "that most true it is, the Scriptures cannot 
mislead us," &c. (See letter viii. 2d and 3d pages ; also 
ix. X. xi.) So then, " the gospel is an infallible guide, but 
not a perfect rule ;" i. e. not an infallible guide ! This is 
logic with a witness, worthy of such a doctor ! But more 
of this anon. 

He is most diligent in searching out all the faults, errors, 
and discrepancies of Protestants, especially of the first Re- 
formers, with the view, doubtless, that his own inveterate 
ones of the present time might pass in the smoke and elude 
observation. That these men, however sincere, might, 
after the long night of papal darkness in w-hich they were 
held, upon their first emerging from it, have weak eyes, 
and many confused notions and crude ideas, like unto those 
" who saw men as trees walking," is not to be wondered 
at; it is what we might look for. Every freckle on thera 
is, with him, a cancer; but the real cancers of his own are 
only freckles, and their putridity perfect soundness ! In his 
church are Jansenists, Augustinians, Dominicans, &c., strong 
predestinarians,* and Jesuits, Franciscans, Carmelites, &c. 
&c. ; as strongly opposed to each other's ideas, as being 
very wickedness and absurdity. But on all this he is quite 
silent, inasmuch as they cleave to the pope and tlie faith of 
Pius IV. Yet on Protestants, in similar circumstances, — 
some branches of thera judging they should hold predesti- 
nation and election to a certain extent, and others contend- 
ing that the gospel does not warrant any such notions, (as 
did the Wesleys, &c.,) but all conscientiously cleaving to 

* Note on Rom. ix. 11, "Not yet born," &c. By this example of 
these twins, and the preference of the younger to the elder, the apostle 
shows that God, in his election and grace, is not tied to any particular 
nation, prerogatives of birth, or any foregoing merits, as the Jews ima- 
gined ; for, as antecedently to his grace he sees no merits in any, but 
finds all involved in the common lump of sin and condemnation, and all 
children of wrath, there is no one whom he might not justly leave in 
that lump ; so that whomsoever he delivers from it, he delivers in his 
mercy ; and leaves in his justice whom he leaves in it: as when of two 
equally guilty, the king is pleased, out of pure mercy, to pardon one, 
whilst he suffers justice to take place in the execution of the other." 
What! without any gospel offer to them 1 Impossible! Here is high 
predestination in Milner's church, with a witness ; and yet he ridicules 
others for it. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 133 

Christ and his gospel according to their several abilities, and 
carefully discarding all human inventions, — I say, on these 
he falls like a tempest, and confounds them together, as all 
holding, as he asserts, the same impieties; although they 
are daily, and at present with Christian kindness, thank 
God, labouring to correct each other, in reference to any 
views contrary to the gospel any might mistakenly hold ; 
for they are all agreed, that any notion or doctrine opposed 
to the Scripture is indeed impious. Where, then, was his. 
honesty — his candour, that what he counted only mistakes 
in his own orders, he makes impieties in Protestants ? And 
with such ill-natured matters does he fill up his book, yet 
able to find no argument to defend the really monstrous 
tenets of his own church. Nor is he ashamed, in the face 
of the clearest possible facts, to insist, as he does, (let. xix.) 
*' that his church holds the very same doctrine now, that 
the church held in the apostolic age ! nor suffers any per- 
son in her communion to change it, or even to question any 
part of it ;" although he was well aware, the twelve new 
articles of the Trent creed were never taught by the apos- 
tles or their Lord ! How such glaring untruths and incon- 
sistencies can be reconciled with all his high professions of 
sincerity, let common sense determine ; or how such as- 
sumed sincerity can be looked on otherwise than as a ruse, 
a trick to cover a design to promote the spread of papal 
doctrine, and lull men into a fallacious security, is beyond 
my ability to comprehend, nor do I expect ever to see the 
man who can account for it on any other ground. And 
satisfied I am, that when my countrymen shall discover 
this horrible artifice and hypocrisy to mislead them, they 
will with indignation rise up, to a man, against it, and fiee 
from it forever. 

When closing the next articles — the doctrines of purga- 
tory and indulgences — I shall again notice Dr. Milner's 
chicanery. 

1 am, reverend sir, yours, 

GIDEON OUSELY. 



12 



LETTER III. 



PURGATOEY A FIGMENT. 

NO INFORMED POPE OR PRIEST EVER DID OR EVER 
CAN BELIEVE IN PURGATORY! 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER.* 

Rev. sir, — The council of Trent (sess. iv.) saith, ^^Evan- 
gelum quod JDominus noster Jesus Christus Dei FiliuSy 
propria ore primum promulgavit,^^ &c. " That the gos- 
pel which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first 
preached with his own mouth, and afterwards commanded 
to be preached by his apostles to every creature, is the 
fountain of all saving truth and good morals," &c. The 
solemn oath that binds you, sir, the pope- and his clergy, 
to these excellent words of this canon, is flatly opposed to 
purgatory; and that which binds you all to the canon, "de 
purgatorio ;" (constanter tenere purgatorium esse, sess. 
xxiv.) " constantly to hold that there is a purgatory for 
souls not fully parged," &c., is totally opposed to the for- 
mer canon ! Hence it follows, that as no man in his senses 
can believe self-contradictions, so can none of you possibly 
believe there is such a place as purgatory, and believe the 
gospel is true ; nor can any of you from this labyrinth ever 

• Extract of. a sermon against the Methodists, by the Rev. John 
Thayer, preached in St. John's Chapel, in Limerick, Feb. 3d, 1811: — 
" True it is," saith he, (after some scolding,) " the Methodists do not 
curse nor swear, they do not tell lies, they are not drunkards, they are 
strict observers of the Sabbath, and above all things, they are remark' 
able for their great charity and regard to their fellow-creatures ; this 
they possess in so eminent a degree, as makes me blush for m.y own 
flock; but still, they are not of the true church, inasmuch as they dj 
not belong to the church ofRomeJ* 

134 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 135 

be able to escape, but by the rejection of purgatory, and 
indeed of the papacy and its dogmas altogether. As no 
authority opposed to the gospel can be regarded by you or 
me, I shall now beg to attend to this dogma of your church. 

Your definition of the mass is this: '■^TVhat is mass, but 
Jesus Christ himself, with all his merits and satisfaction, 
which we present to God the Father for the souls in pur- 
gatory, as the price of their redemption?''^ 

" The sacrifice of the mass is truly and properly jorojoi- 
tiatory for the living and for the dead ; (for those in purga- 
tory;) because the same Christ is therein contained, and 
unbloodily immolated, who once offered himself bloodily 
on the cross." — Council of Trent, sess. 22, cap. 2, can. 3, 
and Forma Fidei. 

To ofi"er or present any thing, therefore, as a price for 
the redemption of souls from purgatory, to the Father, but 
Jesus Christ, would, with you, be a great profanation. 
Now if it should happen, (which ye allow in many cases 
it may,) that the bread and wine in the mass are not changed 
by virtue of the words of consecration into the real natural 
body of our Lord Jesus Christ — as it is not possible that they 
could, Christ having been born of a woman, and never made 
of bread and wine ; — in this case, I say, you allow in your 
book, and in the General Missal, pages 53, 54, "that Christ 
is not in the mass — nothing is there but mere bread and 
wine still;" then, this profanation must, you allow, be the 
consequence, and that in the mass can no sacrifice be. 

There are more than twelve cases particularized in pages 
70, 71, 72, of your book, and in your Missal, any one of 
which, you own, renders void the consecration, and totally 
prevents the transubstantiation ; and tlien Christ is not in 
the mass : viz. " if there be any defects in the matter, form, 
intention, or minister, the consecration is null and void." 
See page 44, an extract from the Missal. 

Now it is very certain no man breathing, priest or lay- 
man, can possibly be sure that these defects are avoided ; and 
if not, all the service of the mass is idolatry and prof ana- 
tion. This you grant; then these consequences are un- 
avoidable. 

1st. As ye cannot offer the sacrifice without worshipping 
the host, if the consecration be void, then only bread and 
wine, and not Christ being there, they who worship the 



136 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

host after this inefficient consecration, which ye all con- 
stantly do, be it true or false, worship mere bread and wine, 
and are, as ye allow, guilty of most stupid idolatry and 
wickedness ! 

2d. Only bread and wine being in the mass, they are 
offered unto God as a price for the souls in purgatory! a 
goodly price, truly ! Bread and wine worshipped by men 
and offered to God as a price for souls to release them out 
of purgatory! Is not this a most foul and shameless pro- 
fanation ? 

Now I demand, 1st, was the sacrament, which Christ 
himself blessed and ministered with his own hands, a sacri- 
fice properly, or at all propitiatory for sin ? 2d. Was it 
worshipped with divine or with any worship ? 3d. Was 
it offered up to God on any account ? And, lastly, was it 
any way inferior to any since ministered by man ? 

The 1st was impossible, as there could be no proper 
propitiation but the death of Christ, which had not then 
taken place ; the 2d was not done, no worship was given 
to it, — -this the council of Trent confesses, as we shall see 
hereafter, — and as it was given only to be eaten in remem- 
brance, then it could not be Christ, and so was not transub- 
stantiated, except ye will presume to affirm that he was 
eaten before he died on the cross, and yet was not eaten, 
for he was crucified after; the 3d, it vi^as not offered to God, 
as the evangelists tell us, but was given to men to be eaten ; 
and to the last you must answer, it was not inferior, — no 
sacrifice forever could surpass it, and if not, by making your 
sacrament to be also a sacrifice properly propitiatory, to 
be divinely worshipped, and to be offered up to God for 
the living and for the souls in purgatory, all which are 
opposed to his, and yet ye are on your oath " to believe, 
practise, and teach;" then must it not follow that his sacra- 
ment, which was not propitiatory, nor was worshipped, 
differs from yours, and that yours is therefore infinitely 
above his ? Is not this exalting yourselves above him, and 
a climbing up to the highest possible blasphemy? nay, a 
taking to yourselves the very character of the man of sin, 
the son of perdition, of antichrist 1 And are you not aware 
of the punishment that is likely to follow? Rev. xiii. — xix. 
20. Hence, no sacrifice is in the mass, to offer it there- 
fore for souls must be profane ; and hence you must either 



PURGATORY A PIGMENT. 137 

quit it and purgatory, or secure your own ruin. For, let 
me now ask you, can you or the people, after knowing all 
this, judge yourselves safe in persisting in the dangerous 
service of your mass, and still use thera to take souls out 
of PURGATORY ? And if such be the means to rescue souls 
from it, then, it is to be concluded, there is no such place 
of God's appointment. 

And that there is no purgatory, but that it is a mere 'in- 
vention of the church, to enrich the clergy and to frighten 
the ignorant and keep them in subjection, (for who would 
not be in awe of and attentive to the man that has power 
quickly to hasten him out of a terrible fire, as bad as hell 
itself?) I say that there is no purgatory may appear still 
more evident from the following reasons : — 

1st. The thing is encumbered with so many and such 
inextricable difficulties and absurdities, as 1 have just stated, 
that it must be dismissed as contrary to all common sense ! 

2d. Although the council of Trent, in the ^^ Forma Fidei^ ' 
and in the '■'Decretum de Furgatorio,^^ obliges her clergy 
to SWEAR, " constantly to hold, and most diligently to 
teach, that there is a purgatory," &c., yet in the face of 
all this, many of your most learned and eminent divines 
have had the candour and courage to leave it on record for 
posterity, that no such thing can at all be proved. 

Your Bishop Fisher saith, in Confut. Luth., art. 18, 
** Many are tempted now-a-days not to rely much on in- 
dulgences, for this consideration, that the use of them ap- 
pears to be new and very lately known among Christians. 
To which I answer. It is not very certain who was the first 
author of them ; the doctrine of purgatory ivas a long 
time unknown, was rarely if at all heard of among the 
ancients, and to this day the Greeks believe it not ;* nor 
was the belief of either purgatory oi indulgences so ne- 
cessary in the primitive church as it now is ; so long as 

* The Greeks, in their apology to the council of Basil, {de Igne Par- 
gatorio, p. 56,) say, " We own no purgatory fire ; we have received no 
such thing, nor doth our eastern church confess it." 

And at the end of the apology, p. 93, "For these causes the doctrine 
proposed of a purgatory fire is to be rejected and cast out of the church, 
as that which tends to slacken the endeavours of the diligent, and which 
hinders them from doing their utmost to be purged in this life, sinco 
another purgatory is expected after it." 

12* 



138 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

men were unconcerned about purgatory, nobody inquired 
after indulgences.^^ Thus we see the bishop confesses, 
'-'•purgatory and indulgences were neither known nor ne- 
cessary in the primitive or pure church. A notable con- 
fession this from a papal doctor.' " Indulgences were now, 
though not of old, necessary." Necessary for what ? 
Why, for enriching the clerg-y, to be sure, that these being 
sold, and masses said, money might thus be raised ; and 
so indulgences, and a purgatory out of which tormented 
souls might be thus released, were then luckily, or rather 
wickedly thought on, as a fit expedient for this end ! But 
of indulgences more hereafter. 

Otto Frising, an old historian and a Roman Catholic 
bishop, and contemporary with St. Bernard, Chron. anno 
1146, tells us, "The doctrine of purgatory was first built 
upon the credit of those fabulous dialogues attributed to 
Gregory I. about the year 600." And for the prayers made 
to deliver souls from thence, (that gainful article of the 
papal ch'urch,) we are told by your own authors, " That 
the first who caused them to be appointed by the church 
of Rome was Odillo, Abbot of Clugny, in the year 1000."* 

3d. The ancient fathers knew nothing of purgatory. 
St. Augustine, it is true, once had some debates in his mind 
about it, when he wrote his Questions, de octo dulcitiis. 
He then said, ''That such a matter as a middle state for 
purgation might be inquired off\ for that notion that 
some might not be good enough for heaven, nor yet bad for 
hell, which, though feasible at first view, is yet both irra- 
tional and unscriptural. (For every soul is either the ser- 
vant of God or of Satan ; and there are different degrees of 
glory in heaven, and of punishments among the damned ; 
therefore there is no neutrality — no middle place.) I say 
this crude notion, the offspring of heathenism, especially 
of Plato, Virgil, and Homer, might at first view have hastily 
entered his mind, as it doth now of many of the unthinking. 
But on maturer examination he saith, " We read of heaven 
and of hell, but the third place we are utterly ignorant of; 
yea, we find it is not in the Scriptures. ''X — " Nor will 

* Ranul. Higden. Polychron. 1. 6, c. 15. Petrus Damian. Vit. 
■f August, de Civit. Dfi, I. 21, cap. 26. 

\ Tertiam penitus ignoramus, irao nee esse in Scripturis Sanctis in- 
rcniinus, «&;c. Serui. 14 de Verb. Dom. et Hypog. 1, 5, cont. Pelag. 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 139 

any thing help thee but what is done while thou art here. 
As the last day of man's life finds him, so the last day of 
the world shall hold him."* Again, "iVec est ullus ulli 
mediits locus,'''' &c., "Nor is there, for any body, any 
third place that he can possibly be in, but with the devil, 
who is not with Christ."! 

Justin Martyr, (quest. 75,) pronounces, " That imme- 
diately after death there is made a separation between good 
and bad men, and that the good are carried into Paradise." 
Irenseus, lib. 1, cap. 2, declares, "The wicked shall be 
cast into eternal fire." Cyprian, in his Sermon on Mor- 
tality, says, "The just, when they die, are called to a place 
of shelter and rest." Gregory Naz. says, in Encomio 
Caesaris, " That the souls of good people, when they are 
freed from the body, do forthwith enjoy an incredible plea- 
sure, and joyfully fly unto the Lord." St. Cyril, lib. 22, 
on St. John's gospel, avers, " That the souls of the faithful 
are perpetually with Christ, and pass not through any place 
of pain or torment. ^^ 

St. John Chrysostom, in his second homily on Lazarus, 
saith, " When we shall be departed out of this life, there 
is then no room for repentance ; nor will it be in our power 
to wash out any spots we have contracted, or to purge 
away any one of the evils we have committed." 

St. Ambrose, cap. 2, de Bono Mortis, " He that, before 
he goeth out of this world, hath not received remission of 
his sins, shall never, in the other world, be admitted into 
the country of the blessed.''^ 

And St. Jerome determines, " That in this life we may 
be assisted with prayers and good Christian counsels, but 
afterwards, when we are summoned to appear in the other 
world, the prayers of Job and Daniel will not be heard, 
nor can avail in any one's behalf, but every man must bear 
his own burden." 

St. Patrick writes, " Tria sunt habitacula sub omnipo- 
tentis Dei nutu. Primum, imum, medium," &c. "Three 
abodes there are under the government of Almighty God; 
the first is heaven, second hell, third, this world. In hell 

* In quo enim quemq. inveniret suus novissimus dies, in hoc eum 
comprehendet mundi novissimus dies. August, de peccat. et merit, el 
remiss. Epist. 86. 

t Aug. lib. 1, c. 28. 



140 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

none are good, in heaven none bad, and both are supplied 
from the middle, in which are both good and bad. The 
servants of God go to God, and the servants of the devil to 
the devil."* 

Gregory the Great, it is true, had at times, from some 
strange visions and ghosts, as he thought, some crude no- 
tions about a purgatory. (Dial. 4, c. 35.) Yet, on Eccle- 
siastes xi. 3, " If the tree fall toward the south or the north, 
where it falls there it shall be," he thus remarks, " The 
just one, in the day of his death, falleth southward, and the 
sinner northward; for the just is, by the favour of the 
Spirit, carried into bliss, but the sinner, with the apostate 
angel in his benumbed heart, is reprobated and cast away." 
And again, " At the time of a man's dissolution, either the 
good or evil spirit receives the soul as it comes from its 
fleshly habitation, and shall keep it with itself without any 
change at all forever; so that being exalted once, it never 
can fall into punishment, nor, being plunged into eternal 
torments, can it ever be thence delivered."! 

TertuUian, (de Anima, cap. ult.) is cited as entertaining 
notions of purgatory when a Montanist, but in his Pre- 
scriptions he is very express, saying, " This their doctrine 
(of purgatory) being compared with the apostolical, will 
itself, by its diversity and contrariety, pronounce that it had 
for author neither any apostle nor apostolic man. "J 

And yet ye priests now persuade the people your masses 
and prayers will nevertheless avail in the other world!! 
And is this, indeed, your judgment, O ye ancient goldly 
men, that there was not in your days any purgatory? But 
were you now in the world ye might learn another lesson; 
ye might see thousands of masses, &c. &;c., going forward, 
pretending to release poor souls out oUt! It is now men 
are wise ! 



* Pat. de trib. hab. MS. Jac. Bib. Reg. Usher. 

-j- In die mortis suae Justus ad austrum cadit, peccator ad aqailonem, 
&c. Cum humani casus tempore, sive sanctus, sive malignus spiritus 
egredientum aniraam claustra carnis acceperit, et in aeternum secum, 
sine uUa permutations retinebit, &c. — Greg. Naz. Mor. 1. 12, cap. 3. 
Idem I. 8, cap. 13. 

i " Ipsa enim doctrina eorum cum apostolica comparata, ex diversitate 
et contrarietate sua pronunciavit, neque apostoli alicujns actoris es.se, iie- 
que apostolici." — Tertul. Prsescrip. ad vers. HjEtes. cap. 3a. 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 141 

" Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.^^ 
"God's holy truth was loved and taught of old; 
But times are changed — now lies are taught for gold.^'' 

Thus many of your learned doctors, and also the ancient 
fathers, overthrow purgatory, confessing it to be only a 
human invention, — a novelty; and yet your infallibility 
teaches you and your brethren " to offer Christ in your 
mass to his Father to release souls from it" ! ! ! 

Notwithstanding all we have said, and much more that 
we might adduce from the ancient fathers, against any idea 
whatever of this new invented papal purgatory fire, — yet 
papal doctors fail not boldly to cite them for it, as they have 
done the Scriptures also, in which, it will presently be proved, 
there is no trace whatever of such a matter. It is true, 
many of the ancients had a great variety of notions among 
them of a curious sort, respecting the purifying of souls, 
and prayers for them. Many of them concluded, as a man 
is not fully delivered from all the curse of sin till he, at the 
resurrection, receives his body again, that the prayers and 
offerings of the living would be helpful to the blessed for 
their increase of felicity till then. Hence, in the liturgy of 
the church of Constantinople, said to be St. Chrysostom's, 
is this prayer, "?Fe offer unto thee, O God, this reason- 
able service for those who are at rest in the faith, especialhf 
for our most holy, immaculate, and most blessed lady^ 
the mother of our Lord, the ever blessed.'*^ And in the 
liturgy of the church of Egypt, ascribed to St. Basil, Greg. 
Naz., and Cyril of Alexandria, — ''Be mindful, O God, 
of thy saints, our holy fathers the patriarchs, prophets, 
apostles, martyrs: especially the holy, glorious, and ever 
blessed virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord,''^ &lc. Thus 
did St. Ambrose pray for Theodosius, of whom he had be- 
fore said, " He enjoys everlasting light and continued 
tranquillity.'" And thus did Greg. Naz. for his brother 
Caesarus. Thus Cyp. Dion. Ariopag., &c. 

Origen, and all of his cast, (which were many, such as 
Lactantius, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, &c.,) be- 
lieved, " That all, even wicked men and devils, after being 
purged by fire according to their demerits, should at length 
be saved at the last day, and that all should pass through 
fire at the great judgment." And St. Hilary, in Psalm 
118, saith, "The virgin Mary herself shall pass through 



142 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

it." Cardinal Bellarmine, though in his 1st book he pro- 
duces these to support the papal purgatory, yet in the 
beginning of his 2d book he confesseth, "All the above 
are for that universal fire or purgatory at the day of judg- 
ment, through which all must pass, the virgin Mary herself 
not excepted."* Therefore they prayed for all, good and bad. 

St. Jerome, (Comment on Isai. 65,) judged, " Though 
devils and other wicked men should be damned, yet wicked 
Christians, who continued in the church in their lifetime, 
after having suffered punishment in the other w^orld, should 
meet mercy from the judge," — therefore was of opinion 
** prayers and offerings should be made for these." But 
who of the church of Rome, any more than we, now be- 
lieves in any of these vv'hims ? What colour, then, can 
they afford purgatory? I might multiply quotations, and 
swell my book with such and many more of their strange 
notions ; but this shall be sufficient, and go to account for 
these prayers for the dead formerly made use of, and that 
they were never used for souls in any purgatory. We 
may, from all this, now see that the Scripture is the only 
record on which we may safely repose, to guide us in the 
way of peace and save us from all such wild fancies. 

4thly. The Holy Scriptures afTord no room for purgatory. 
Christ our Lord saith, " There are twelve hours in the day, 
when men ought to work ; work while ye have the day, for 
the night cometh when no man can work :" when the night 
of death cometh, the die is cast forever ; the destiny is 
fixed, never more to be revoked. St. Paul tells us, " If our 
earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house eternal 
in the heavens." And again, " When we are absent from 
the body we are present with the Lord." So, not in pur- 
gatory, unless it will be affirmed the Lord is in purgatory. 

We are told in the gospel, Luke xxii. 43, " The beggar 
died and was carried by angels (not into a limbo or purga- 

* Non defuerunt qui purgatorium adeo probarint, ut nullas psenas 
nisi purgatorias post banc vitam agnoverint ; ita Origines sensit qui et 
daemonibus tandem salutem policetur." Bellarmine says, "That some 
there were of the ancients who were so partial to purgatory, that they 
allowed of no punishments after this life but purgatory only ; so thought 
Origen, who promised salvation even to the devils themselves." Bellar. 
lib. de Purgat. cap. 2. How foolish, then, are papal doctors to try to 
taake purgatory out of such crude notions, even as doth Milner. 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 143 

ory, but) into Abraham's bosom, to paradise;" whither 
*the penitent thief went also," as saith Christ. And, in 
Luke ix. 30, we read, " Moses and Elias appeared on 
mount Tabor, in glory, with our Lord, and with James, 
Peter, and John." So, it seems, they were not confined 
in limbo patrum before the death of our Lord, as ye say, 
but fallaciously say, were all the saints. Then, it is to be 
concluded there was no such place. St. John saith, " They 
who die in the Lord are blessed, and do rest from their 
labours."* Scripture might be heaped upon scripture to 
prove there is no purgatory. And many of your own able 
writers declare this, that Scripture is not for purgatory, as 
we shall now see. 

Picherellus, one of your doctors of the Sorbonne, doth 
confess, that '■^ St. John, by this last mentioned scripture, 
hath put out forever the fire of purgatory.'''* And again, 
'■'•There is no fuel in Scripture, either to kindle or main- 
tain the fire of purgatory. ^^f 

Bellarmine {in loco) confesses, ^'•Purgatory cannot, by 
any rule of logic, be proved from the r2th of St. Matthew, 
as the sin there mentioned was never to be purged, being 
damnable." Yet, as many papal writers affect to find much 
in this text, I shall stop to spend a few thoughts on it. 

Christ, in verse 32, declares, " The blasphemy against 
the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come." Dr. Challoner remarks on 
these words, " Our Lord would not have mentioned /or^'iue- 
ness in the world to come, if sins, not forgiven in this 
world, could not be forgiven in the world to come; then, 
there must be a purgatory ; for no sin can enter into hea- 
ven to he forgiven there, and in hell there is no forgiveness 
at all."t 

I reply — 1st. As God cannot contradict himself, nor be 
unjust or a respecter of persons, then it will follow, that if 
any sin or guilt can be forgiven in the other world, all can 
be forgiven ; and the scriptures which say, " If we die in 
our sins, we perish forever,"§ must be false ! For, if even 
one sin, however small, can be forgiven there, then, accord- 
ing to true impartiality, all such, of all mankind, can be 

• Rev. xiv. 13. -j- In Missa. p. 155, and cap. 2, p. 115 

t Cath. Christian, p. 123. § John viii. 21, 24. 



144 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

similarly forgiven. If so, all those put together must be 
equal, at least, to one sin a shade or two greater ; so, this 
one, according to the same impartiality, must also be for- 
given : and then, all of that kind and of all men, must also 
be forgiven ; for God is no respecter of persons ; and thus 
all sins whatever that are remissible at all, or at any time, 
might be thus pardoned after death ; and so would the 
Scripture prove false, and Christianity be annihilated. But 
if it cannot be that all sins may thus be remitted after death, 
then can no sin be pardoned after death ; for if one sin can 
thus be pardoned, all can, as I have now proved. Hence, 
ye must either affirm that God is unjust — is a respecter of 
persons, and a self-contradictor, which is blasphemy — or 
give up the idea of any sins being forgiven after death. No 
sophistry can avoid this conclusion. Then, by this text, 
there can be no purgatory ! 

2dly. He must be very ignorant indeed who knows not 
that the phrase world to come, [sv ac«^'^ ■tco y.i%xovti,Y has, 
in Scripture, another meaning besides the state of the dead ; 
and to play upon an ambiguous word, to serve a turn and 
mislead the ignorant, is not only shameful imposture, but, 
as it is an attempt to give a false view of the divine will, is 
such wickedness as incurs the heaviest displeasure of God. 
Messiah's kingdom on earth, or the gospel dispensation, is 
called the age, or world to come, as distinguished from the 
Jev/ish age, or world, which then was. Heb. ii. 5 ; vi, 5 ; 
xii. 27, 28. Then, the meaning is. This blasphemy shall 
not be forgiven, neither in the present Jewish (atwrt) dis- 
pensation, or world, neither in the [anovi) age, or world, of 
the Messiah, however mild. Here, then, is no room for 
purgatory ! 

3dly. Should the expression even mean the other world, 
yet will it not prove what ye want ; for then it will refer to 
the day of judgment, and to the final triumph of the right- 
eous over all sin and the consequences of it. Death was 
the last consequence ; but now being delivered from that 
by ihe resurrection of their bodies, and by the forgiveness 
they had received on earth being ratified and published be- 
fore all men, by the Judge, in that day: then it may be said 
in the fullest sense, their sins are indeed and forever for- 

* Matt. xii. 32. 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 145 

g'ven them, never to relapse more. To this St. Paul seems 
to refer, when he talks of " The Lord's showing mercy in 
that day." 2 Tim. i. 18. Thus, forgiveness in this sense 
(z. e. a ratification of that received on earth) can be in the 
world to come, without the necessity of resorting to this 
absurd purgatoi'y. I might say, lastly, it could readily 
respect a certain Jewish opinion : they judged, " If a man 
was executed for any crime, his death expiated it, and he 
suffered none in the other world." 

Maldonat (in loco) ownis "it cannot be proved from the 
5th of Matthew, as the prison there spoken of is hell and 
not purgatory.^^ 

Peter de Soto allows it cannot be proved from 1 Cor. iii. 
15, *' As it is not persons, but vain doctrines, called wood, 
hay, stubble, which some well meaning but mistaken teach- 
ers affirmed to be true, that shall in the day of judgment 
be tried by fire and be burnt, and themselves shall hardly 
escape, even as one escapeth out of the fire." 

As to 1 Peter iii. 19, 20, "By which he (Christ) went 
and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes 
were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a prepar- 
ing," — although the annotators on the Rhemish Testament, 
and all the other papal writers, proclaim with much tri- 
umph, that "here, at least, is ample proof for purgatory;" 
yet, when the passage is but a little examined, it falls to the 
ground at once. Souls in a state of grace and obedience, 
are they only, which, ye say, are sent to purgatory; but, 
unluckily for your purpose, those mentioned there by Saint 
Peter, " ivere disobedient, incredulous souls, and ungodly, ^^ 
as he calls them in 2 Pet. ii. 15, — consequently were in a 
state of mortal sin, and therefore could not at all go to pur- 
gatory ; souls which refused to believe or hearken to Noah, 
when Christ, by his spirit in him, (1 Pet. i. 11,) preached 
to them to repent. They are, therefore, now in the prison 
of hell, as they then obstinately continued in the prison of 
sin, and of wilful and avoidable unbelief and disobedience. 
Bede, as you shall presently see, was of this very judgment, 
as was Athanasius, CEcumenius, &;c. Besides, ye affirm 
that Clirist, after his death, went to deliver all the souls of 
the just from limbo, there detained from the beginning of 
the world; but again unluckily for you, the word, or verb 
13 



146 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

in the text is (sxrjpv^sv) '^ preached,''^ and not ^^ delivered.'''' 
Again, in it is no mention whatever of the just of all ages, 
but "of the incredulous," the " artji^jjcracft.," of one period 
only, the days of Noah. Thus this scripture fully turns 
against you and your doctors : and I have already destroyed 
your limbo ; for I have shown Moses and Elias were not 
confined in it, but were at large, having appeared in glory 
on the mount before our Lord died at all. And if they were 
in no confinement, in no limbo, before his death, neither 
was any of the patriarchs ; for our God is no respecter of 
persons : tlierefore, there was no more limbo then than 
purgatory now. 

Bede, who lived more than one thousand years ago, citing 
the judgment of Athanasius on 1 Pet. iii. 20, thus saith, 
" Ille qui in nostris temporibus," &c. "He who in our 
times, coming in the flesh, preached the way of life to the 
world, even he himself came before the flood, and preached 
to them who then were unbelievers and lived carnally. For 
even he, by his Holy Spirit, was in Noah and in the rest 
of the holy men which were at that time, and by their good 
conversation preached to the wicked men of that age, that 
they might be converted to better manners." Fulk, in loco, 
sec. 2, p. 808. Hance it is plain St. Peter affords no help 
for purgatory. 

Your last resource is 2 Mac. xii. .39. To this, when 
hard pressed, ye all run as to your dernier resource; but it 
will not do, it makes nothing for purgatory. The book is 
not canonical, is not divinely inspired. The Jews, to whom 
the oracles of God were committed, as St. Paul (Rom. iii.) 
tells us, never received it into their canon. Pope Gregory, 
oil the book of Job, saith, "Though the Maccabees be read 
for edification, yet they are not canGnical.''^ And your 
Sixtus Senensis informs us, that the famous Melito, Bishop 
of Sardis, a man of great judgment and piety, took a jour- 
ney to the eastern churches, where the apostles principally 
preached, to find out the true canon of Scripture, and re- 
turned with the very same canon wliich Protestants now 
}\ave ; but, for the Apocrypha, "it v/as not found in their 
canon." " Non est inventus." 

Do not your great writers. Cardinal Bellarmine, Canus, 
and Andradius, confess that the fathers, Melito, Origen, 
Athanasius, Eiisebius, Ruffinus, Hierom, and Amphilocius, 



PURGATvORY A FIGMENT. 147 

held the same? Bellarmine (de Verbo Dei, 1. 1, c. 10, in 
principio) saith, ^'^ All those books ivhich the Protestants do 
not receive, the Jews also did not receive.''^ To which add, 
that the council of Laodicea, anno 364, and that of Car- 
thage, ratified by the Popes of Rome, held the same cata- 
logue of canonical Scriptures with us, leaving out the Apoc- 
rypha altogether, as we do. Then the books of Maccabees 
cannot be any support for purgatory ! 

2dly. Notwithstanding the council of Trent, in the ple- 
nitude of its infallibility, pronounced, in the face of ail 
these authorities, (council against council !) the book of 
Maccabees, &c., to be canonical, divitiely inspired, hoping 
that then it would serve their turn for praying for the dead, 
offerings, purgatory, &c., yet its author, in as plain words 
as can be, flady denies it, and refuses the honour they would 
force on him ; for, in the 15th chap. 38th ver., he owns 
himself only an historian, performing his work : " If 
meanly and slenderly, (saith he,) it was what I could attain 
to :" and in the xiv. 42, 43, he commends Rezias for kill- 
ing himself; a doctrine quite contrary to inspiration: and, 
(with many other absurdities,) he tells us that Antiochus 
died three times ; first, in Babylon, in his bed, 1 Mac. ii. 6; 
then, he is stoned in the temple of Nanea, 2 Mac. i. ; lasdy, 
he dies in the mountains by a fall from his chariot, 2 Mae. 
ii. 9. This puts us in mind of a story of a gentleman that 
told this lie, That he shot a deer, at one shot, through his 
right ear and left hinder leg : but how was he puzzled to 
make it appear true ! So here you have not an inch of 
ground to stand on. And lastly, those there mentioned, 
who were slain in the battle, were idolaters, as the place 
itself proves ; who, therefore, being in mortal sin, could not 
have gone to purgatory: this ye allow. Consequently, the 
money sent as an offering to the Jewish priests to pray for 
the dead, could not have been to relieve the souls of those 
idolaters out of purgatory; but probably it was for this end, 
that the priests might pray to God for them, that the sins 
Tof those who were slain for their idolatry might not be 
visited on the living, who perhaps neglected to reprove 
their idolatry in due time ; as in the case of Achan. Josh 
vii. 1—11 ; xxii. 20. 

But further: your own catechism, and your great cham- 



lis PURGATOllY A FIGMENT. 

pion, Bishop Challoner, (but doubtless without intendiug it,) 
destroy purgatory altogether. 

Your catechism affirms, " The Holy Ghost abides in the 
souls of the just." The bishop, m his book of Meditations 
on the Holy Ghost, declares, " Nothing can be wanting to 
that soul that is so happy as to possess the Holy Ghost, 
because it possesses the very fountain itself of all possible 
good ; and that whoever does not possess this Holy Spirit, 
does not belong to Christ, but is possessed by Satan and 
belongs to him, according to the apostle, (Rom. viii. 9,) ' If 
any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his.' " 
So here is no medium : the just man, says your catechism, 
"possesses the Holy Ghost;" and the bishop says, "he 
wants nothing; the sinner is possessed by the devil, and is 
his." Since, then, he that hath the Spirit is safe, and that he 
who hath it not belongs to Satan, what is purgatory for, as, 
according to these, neither just nor unjust are to go to it ? 
And thus it is clearly a mere fiction. 

Further, I ask, first. As soon as mortals die, is not their 
eternal destiny fixed ? If it be, how can it be fixed again ? 
And if it cannot be unfixed, of what use, then, can any thing 
be to them after death ? 

2dly. If Christ, by once offering himself, hath made full 
propitiation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, 
and doth perfectly purify all those who truly believe on 
him, and that, in this life only ; then there can be no other 
way of purification hereafter : therefore no purgatory. 

But all this is most true, as saith the beloved apostle, 
(1 John i. 7,) " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth 
us from ALL SIN. Ver. 9. He is faithful and just to forgive 
us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness — for 
he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
but for the sins of the whole world." Heb. ix. 12, " Christ 
by his own blood, entered once into the holy place, having 
obtained eternal redemption for us. 26. Nor yet that he 
should offer himself often. 27. But now once in the end 
of the world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sac- 
rifice of himself, x. 10. We are sanctified through the 
offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. 11. And 
every priest standeth daily ministering and offering often- 
times the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins. 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 149 

12. But this man, after he h.ad offered one sacrifice for sins, 
forever sat down at the right hand of God. 14. For by one 
offering he hath perfected forever thera who are sanctified." 
I cannot but observe here, if Christ, after once offering- him 
self, and once only, for our sins, forever sat down at the 
right hand of God, as saith the apostle, how say ye that he 
offers himself daily and in many places at the same time, 
by the hands of your priests upon your altars ? If this be 
not a flat contradiction to the apostle, I don't know what is. 
Either then ye are mistaken in thinking ye offer his natural 
body daily — and 0, how great is that mistake ! — or the 
apostle asserted falsely, when he affirmed so abundantly, 
" That he offered himself but once, and then sat down for- 
ever on the right hand of God, never to be offered more." 
Seeing then that Christ hath fully atoned for us by his own 
blood, and doth perfectly purify every true believer, there 
cannot then be any purgatory. To say ye offer him un- 
bloodily, ruins your cause ; for, " Without shedding of 
blood there is no remission of sins," saith St. Paul. Heb. 
ix. 22. But ye shed no blood in the mass ; therefore there 
is in it no propitiation, no remission of sin ; and then, the 
mass sacrifice to rescue souls from purgatory, must, if the 
apostle speak truly, be a dangerous deception. 

3dly. All persons die in a justified or condemned state ; 
if justified, " they have peace with God," saith holy Paul, 
Kom. v. 1,* and so are not to be tormented after death; but 
if condemned, then they are damned forever ! Hence the 
justified go to immediate rest, and the condemned enter 
upon instant and eternal torments ; and therefore purgatory 
is a deception. 

If, as it is pretended, the venial sins, so called, of true 
believers, and a debt of vindictive temporal punishment, 
said to be due to mortal sin, have not been so atoned for by 
the great sacrifice of the cross, or so forgiven by God to 
the penitent whom he freely justifies, — " But that they are 
still liable to the guilt of temporal punishment, and to be 
atoned for in this world by penances and good works, or in 
the world to come, in purgatory, before he can enter the 
kingdom of heaven," (council of Trent, sess. 6, can. 30,) 
then this consequence must follow, that God's own justi- 
fication of sinners who penitently believe in the liOrd, 
* And Rom, viii. 1. 
13* 



150 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

whereby they enjoy peace and felicity by the Holy Spirit 
dwelling in them, is not sufficient to save them from all 
sin and future torment without the priest's pardon also ! 
That is, except ihey pay, and perform the penance he shall 
choose to enjoin, they shall, though pardoned by God him- 
self, be nevertheless tormented in purgatory ! What a 
blasphemous doctrine ! What a grasp after undue power 
over a fatally credulous people ! 

But, I ask, where did Christ say he would forgive the 
great sins freely, and would punish the small, or exact a 
temporal debt in purgatory ? Should a good king proclaim 
full forgiveness to all returning deserters of their crimes and 
debts, but when they return, that it is reported of him that 
he imprisons and miserably scourges and lacerates them 
every day for many years, and yet tells them they are 
nevertheless forgiven: would we not conclude either that the 
king was not good, but a lying, hypocritical tyrant or mad- 
man, or that the author of such report was a designing, diabo- 
lical defaraer? Now, God has promised "full forgiveness to 
returning sinners, and that their sins shall never be men- 
tioned." Ezek. xviii. But did he afterwards punish them 
in purgatory, it would be to deceive them. Therefore it 
must follow, 1st. Either that God is not good, or these 
purgatory preachers, to serve their own ends, have misera- 
bly blasphemed him. 2dly. That Christ's satisfaction is 
not complete, or these teachers are false : for that only is 
perfect to which nothing needs be added. 3dly. That remis- 
sion of all sins is not altogether a free gift, as we, in part 
at least, satisfy for them ourselves. 4thly. That Christ is 
not our only Redeemer from all sins ; for by penances, mor- 
tifications, indulgences, masses, or in purgatory, we atone 
for some ourselves. 5th. That if, by some doings or suf- 
fermgs of our own or of others, any sin can in any part be 
satisfied for, then an increase of these must satisfy for more, 
and at length all might be thus satisfied for. If so, the 
death of Christ was consequently needless, as St. Paul 
argues. Gal. iv. For it has been already proved that it 
«<aves none after death from any sin. But to assert any of 
these things is evidently blasphemous. Now to preach up 
Imman merit, or a purgatory in which we can atone for any 
sin, is in effect to assert all these things, and therefore to 
teach blasphe?ny I .' 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 151 

Yet the bull of Pope Pius IV., dated at Rome, Nov. 1564, 
prescribing what is to be received upon oath as the true 
Catholic faith by the papal clergy, amo'ng many other new 
i.rticles lays down this, ^'Constanter teneo purgatorium 
esse, animasqiie ibi detentas Jidelium suffragiis juvariy 
" I constandy hold that there is a purgatory, and that the 
souls there detained are assisted by the suffrages of the 
faithful." Now, is it not evident that thus to swear and 
teach there is a purgatory, is to swear that the apostles, the 
ancient fathers, and many of your own eminent clergy, 
who denied purgatory, ivere all liars, and that the Scrip- 
tures, which teach no such doctrines, are therefore false? 
Alas! what a doctrine to receive, and be sworn to teach! 
To say souls in purgatory are relieved by Christ's blood, 
applied by masses, &c., is to contradict himself, who saith, 
"If we die in our sins, we cannot be saved." John viii. 21. 

But who are they that go into this purgatory ? Ye tell 
us none who are in mortal sin go to it, for that these fall 
into hell, but such alone as are in a state of grace, true 
believers ! ! 

Now, if none who are in mortal sin go to it, on this 
ground few go to it at all. But do ye never say masses for 
any of those after death who have lived unholy lives, and 
died in mortal sin ? And if ye know in your conscience 
ye do, and that daily, for every one who is able to pay you, 
then do ye not, by consequence, offer Christ for those in 
hell? By such conduct, besides the impiety of it towards 
God, do ye not strongly encourage wickedness, and help 
to people Satan's dark abode? 

Thus is it manifest, from reason. Scripture, ancient fa- 
thers, and from many of your own eminent writers, &c., 
that there is no ground whatever for purgatory. 

And if there be no such thing, then all things connected 
with it must fall also ; offerings, prayers for the dead, in- 
dulgences, masses, months' minds, and the whole farrago 
of human inventions which were pretended to be useful to 
rescue souls out of it, together with infallibility, which 
taught these ruinous follies. No ingenuity or learning what- 
ever can uphold them ; they must come down ; the stroke, 
the mighty stroke of divine truth to them is mortal ; and 
thus this market is entirely spoiled, and this source of im- 
pious gain dried up at once, at least among any thinkinj^ 



152 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

people. No wonder, then, if the merchants shall mourn 
and cry out, and be very angry when they see that their 
wares shall be bought no more at all forever. Rev. xviii. 11. 

To behold men, and men of reason and information, too, 
in the nineteenth century, and in a land where they are 
surrounded with the effulgence of gospel light, gravely 
attiring themselves to release souls from where they know 
they are not, and offering masses, i. e. Christ to his Father, 
as they pretend, for their release ; and yet confessing in 
their public missal, as has been already noticed, they know 
not whether it is Christ they thus offer or not, and then 
receiving offerings for the dead, — for performing this most 
extraordinary service is not only ludicrous, but altogether 
horrifying to every thinking mind. The practice of the igno- 
rant pagans, who send money with their dead to pay their 
way to another world, but which their brahmins take for 
themselves, is nothing compared to this ! 

And truly most men are led to think it is not because ye 
believe souls are tormented in purgatory and feel for them 
that ye hasten to perform these services, for then the poor 
would share your pity as well as the rich, but rather to get 
at the offerings ye receive on such occasions. And this 
appears very manifest, because when poor persons die who 
have nothing to give, they are little if at all heeded ; no 
masses or months' minds for them, — ^let them get out as 
well as they can. But when the rich die they are well at- 
tended, they shall have abundance of masses and what not. 
Surely your own people as well as we observe this, and 
must judge the whole is but a juggle to make money; yet 
because it is the custom, they submit to the deception rather 
than make themselves particular, or have war prepared 
against them by the clergy, as saith Micah, iii. 5. 

Now suppose for a moment some of them would take 
courage and question you as follow : 

Good sir — You are come to celebrate mass for my de- 
parted friend, to take him out of purgatory; before you 
begin, be so kind to answer the few following questions : 

1. You will please to inform me. Are you sure there is 
a purgatory? and do you know where it is? how do you 
know this, and what are your proofs ? 

2. Do you know that my friend is certainly there? and 
how do you know this ? 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 153 

3. If anointed persons are thereby finally purified, as ye 
tell us, what has brought him to it? 

4. If he be indeed in it, are you sure masses, indulgences, 
offerings, &c., will release him? Has God, who fixed his 
doom irrevocably, yet commanded him to be thus released? 
Where is your proof? 

5. Are you qualified to say these masses ? How are you 
certain you are a priest at all, as it depended on the qualifi- 
cation and intention of him who baptized you ? And how 
could you know the intention of another ? without which, 
you confess all is null and void. 

6. How are you sure Christ is really in the mass, seeing 
there are such a multitude of cases in which ye own the 
consecration fails, and then Christ is not in it, and it re- 
mains bread and wine only? 

7. Now, would you for any consideration worship bread 
and wine ? and yet it may be it is bread and wine that are 
still in the mass, and not Christ. How, then, could we be 
safe in worshipping it ? 

8. If it be idolatry to worship bread and wine in the 
place of Christ, as you confess it is, how can you certainly 
preserve us, and yourself too, from this wickedness and 
destruction, should we worship the host at your mass ? 

9. Has Christ commanded the sacrament of the altar to 
be worshipped ? or has that given by his own hands been 
worshipped ? If not, is yours better than, and above his, 
and is it his will I should worship it ? 

10. Has Christ, or have his apostles ever practised any 
such worship ? or have they ever commanded any such 
service to take souls out of purgatory? 

Before I can permit any mass to be performed, you will 
have the goodness to answer every one of these ten ques- 
tions. But I fear they are not to be answered ; and until 
they are, I should, were I now to worship the host, fear 
incurring the immediate guilt of idolatry and wickedness. 

Were you, sir, and your brethren, sure your people would 
thus boldly interrogate you, would you, or any of you, ven- 
ture to come to them with your masses to take souls out of 
purgatory ? And if no mass was permitted to be said till 
Ihese questions were fairly answered, a mass more, I dare 
»ay would never be said ! no, not one forever ; and sc 



154 PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 

would purgatory and Popery together quickly expire, never 
more to trouble the world. 

I cannot better conclude this subject than by the follow- 
ing observations from the learned Dr. Adam Clarke, in his 
Sermon on Salvation by Faith, (Acts xvi. 33,) p. 24. 

" What remains to be considered," saith the doctor, " is 
the merit of sufferings ^ their capability to atone for sin, 
and their tendency to purify the soul. I presume it will be 
taken for granted, that there was no suffering in the world 
previously to the introduction of sin. Suffering is an im- 
perfection in nature. If an intelligent creature be found in 
a state of suffering, and of suffering evidently proceeding 
from the abuse of its powers, it naturally supposes that 
such creature has offended God, and that its sufferings are 
the consequences of its offence, whether springing immedi- 
ately from the crime itself, or whether inflicted by divine 
justice, as a punishment for that crime. As sufferings in 
the animal being are the consequence of derangement, or 
disease and dissolution ; derangement and disease, by which 
the regular performance of the animal functions is pre- 
vented, and the destruction of these functions ultimately 
effected, never could have existed in animal beings as they 
proceeded from the hand of an all-perfect and intelligent 
Creator. They are, therefore, something that has taken 
place since creation, and consequently did not spring from 
God. As it would be unkind, if not unjust, to bring multi- 
tudes of innocent beings into a state of wretchedness ; hence, 
the sufferings that are in the world must have arisen from 
the offences of the sufferers. Now, if sin have produced 
suffering, is it possible that suffering can destroy sin ? We 
may answer this question by asking another : Is it possible 
that the stream produced from a fountain can destroy the 
fountain from which it springs ? or is it possible that any 
effect can destroy the cause of which it is an effect ? Rea- 
son has already decided these questions in the negative ; 
ergo, suffering, which is the effect of sin, cannot possibly 
destroy that sin of which it has been the effect. To sup- 
pose the contrary, is to suppose the grossest absurdity that 
can possibly disgrace the understanding of man." This is 
irresistible ! 

Seeing tliat by the above arguments, out of many more 



PURGATORY A FIGMENT. 155 

which might be advanced, and by the testimonies of so 
many ancient fathers and eminent papal doctors, purgatory 
is proved not to have been heard of for several ages after 
Christ, and to be but a mere human invention, a novelty, 
proceeding from Satan and his school, an imposture on 
men to deceive their souls, and filch them of their money, 
must it not then be subversive of Christianity, and lead men 
to ruin ? And as God never gave any man authority to 
teach heresy or imposture, how then can they who teach 
this doctrine be God's ministers ? Must they not therefore 
trace their authority to another source ? But as purgatory 
is a prime article of your faith, and so lucrative to all your 
clergy, and also so earnestly enjoined by your church on 
you and them, "^o teach and preach it most constantly 
and diligently to the day of your death;'''' you, sir, and 
your brethren, will therefore, in its defence, and of your 
own character, which it so deeply involves, and of the pro- 
mise you made and published, " that you would defend it, 
with the other articles of your faith, against all opposers," 
feel it your duty now to rebut all I have advanced against it, 
or otherwise, forsaking it, and all such like novelties, turn 
to Christ and his unerring gospel alone, that henceforth, 
as brethren beloved, thinking and speaking the same things 
which he hath taught us, we may finish our course in peace, 
and appear with joy and not with grief hehre him in that 
DAY, and may hear him say, in the presence of angels and 
men, " Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into 
the joy of your Lord." 

I am. Rev. sir, 

Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus our Lord, 

GIDEON OUSELEY 

5th edit.. May 5, 1827. 



LETTER IV. 



INDULGENCES IMPIETIES, 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Rev. Sir, — The Trent council teachetli, " that after God 
has justified the penitent sinner by his grace, and remitted 
the guilt of his eternal punishment, yet his sin is not so 
wholly blotted out but that there still remains the guilt of 
temporal punishinent due to his justice, which debt the par- 
doned sinner must discharge, either in this life by penance^ 
&c., or hereafter in purgatory, before he can enter the king- 
dom of heaven."* And " the council farther teacheth, that 
Christ has granted to his church the power of granting in- 
dulgences, which extend to this very debt or satisfaction, 
and by which she can remit it wholly or in part in certain 
circumstances. And that the use of them — of these celes- 
tial treasures — is very salutary to the. faithful, and must 
be retained in the church."! 

This pretended "guilt of temporal punishment," of which 
the gospel teaches nothing, is the ingenious, impious, and 
sole foundation of purgatory, indulgences, jubilees, months' 
minds, prayers and masses for the dead, and of all the Babel 

* Si quis post acceptam justificationis gratiam, cuilibet peccatori poeni- 
tenti ita culpam remitti, et reatum seternse poenae deleri dixerit, ut nuUus 
remaneat reatus poenae temporalis exsolvendte vel in hoc ssbcuIo, vel ia 
future in purgatorio, antequam ad regna coelorum aditus patere possit; 
anathema sit. Con. Trid, sess. vi. can. 30. 

-f- Decretum de indulgentiis. Cum potestas conferendi indulgentias a 
Christo ecclesiae concessa sit, &c., sess. 25, sess. 21, cap. 9. See Dr. 
Milner, End Cont. part iii. let. 42. 

156 



INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 157 

building of the church of Rome. Here are her celestial 
treasures! ! 1 Thus she can contrive to plunder the foolish, 
by remitting part or the whole of this preposterous and 
fraudulent debt, a debt founded wholly in falsehood. When 
the publican, the adulteress, the great sinner, the thief on the 
cross, the prodigal, the very murderers of Christ, were for- 
given, it was fully: no debt of temporal guilt remained on 
them, nor was any priestly penance imposed.* And it is 
observable, that when they pretend to forgive, yet is it in- 
sinuated by modern casuists that most probably penance 
enough was not laid on, so that room is thus made for some- 
thing more to come. This we shall notice more fully here- 
after. Alas ! shall men ever remain dupes and fools ? 

Robertson gives us the following account of the use and 
form of indulgences, as practised in the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, and which so disgusted the sincere as to 
cause the Reformation to commence. 

" May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on and absolve 
thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by 
bis authority, and that of his blessed apostles St. Peter and 
*S'^. Paul, and of the most holy Pope Leo X. &c., granted 
unto me in these parts, do absolve thee, first, from all eccle- 
siastical censures, and then from all thy sins, transgressions, 
and excesses, how enormous soever they may be, even such 
as are cognisable by the holy see alone ; and as far as the 
keys of the holy church extend, I remit to you all punish- 
ments which you deserve in purgatory on their account ; 
and I restore you to the unity of the faithful, and to that 
innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism ; so 
that when you die the gates of punishment shall be shut, 
and the gates of Paradise and delight opened ; and if you 
shall not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force 
when you shall be at the point of death. In the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'^ 

He gives us also the language of the clergy who pub- 
lished them — as follows: 

" If any man shall purchase letters of indulgence, his 
soul may rest secure with regard to its salvation. The souls 
confined in purgatory, as soon as the money tinkles in the 
chest, instantly escape from that place of torment and as 

* Luke xviii. 14; xv. 21, 22; vii. 42; xxiii. 43. John viii. 11. 
Acts ii. 38 ; iii. 19 ; xiii. 39 ; xv. 8, 9. 
14 



158 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 

cend into heaven ! The efficacy of indulgences is such, 
that the most heinous sins would be remitted and expiated 
by them, and the persons be freed from punishment and guilt. 
This is the unspeakable gift of God, to reconcile men to 
himself. La J the heavens are open ; if ye enter not in now, 
when will ye enter ? For a little money you may redeem 
the soul of your father out of purgatory from torments. 
If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself in- 
stantly and sell it in order to purchase such benefits."* 
How can any sensible man hesitate to turn away with horror 
from the whole of these shameful and audacious figments ? 

The papal advocates, however, from the shock occasioned 
by the Reformation, have since then been more cautious, 
and by their ingenious definitions of them have laboured to 
soften them down and keep out of sight their real nature, 
affirming they are chiefly used to mitigate penance or 
church censures. I shall mention just one of them, by 
way of specimen. Dr. Challoner, (Cath. Christ, p. 107,) 
saith, "An indulgence is the releasing a true penitent from 
the debt of temporal punishment due to sin, which punish- 
ment the penitent must either discharge by way of satisfac- 
tion and penance here, or suffer in proportion to his debt." 
Suffer where ? TVIiy, in purgatory. " For souls in pur- 
gatory, departed in Christ, not fully purged, is the sacrifice 
of the altar to be offered, to relieve and release them."t 
But the indulgence remits the debt at once, as above. 

So, then, should enough of indulgences be but procured, 
purgatory must lie waste ; surely, then, whether they be 
masses or indulgences that can so quickly save people from 
such dismal burning, they must be worth much indeed ! 
and so we find the papal clergy understood it. But it must 
be noted, masses and indulgences alternately destroy each 
other: for if masses release souls, what need is there of 
indulgences ? and if an indulgence will do, what need of 
masses ? Again, if Christ be in the mass, and that many 
masses are offered to release a soul out of purgatory, yet, 
when " the pope's indulgence does it at once," then it will 
conclusively follow that an indulgence is above all these 
masses, and therefore superior to Christ, " who is," ye 

* Robert. Hist. Charles V., vol. ii. p. 30. 

f Defunctis in Christo nondum ad plenum purgatis. Cone. TriJ 
sess. 6, can. 30, sess. 22, cap. 2. 



INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 159 

say, *' in the mass, soul, body, and divinity;" and thus the 
pope, who is sole author of the indulgence, must therefore 
be very far above Christ, and of course be the antichrist, 
the man of sin. But the indulgence may be had for a few 
shillings, hence must it also follow that these few shillings 
for which it can be had are better than the mass sacrifice, 
i. 6. than Christ, soul, body, and divinity ! ! ! Solve this 
who can. So Christ, by this papal doctrine, is made to be 
of less value than a few shillings ! Even Judas and the 
high priests did not rate him at so low a price. See now 
what your doctrine leads to, — even to blasphemy and im- 
mediate infidelity! But ye say, "Christ himself is the 
author of these indulgences." If so. He is the author of 
these absurdities, which to say, you must allow, is the high- 
est blasphemy ! 

I would just remark, If the pope's indulgences can thus 
release souls from purgatory^ why does he not at once re- 
lease tliem all ? Our Lord asks the Pharisees, " If an ox, 
an ass, or a sheep fall into a pit, which of you will not lift 
it out? And is not a man better than a sheep?" But it 
seems the pope is of another mind, and deems an ass better 
than a man ; for he has less pity for men, whom he leaves 
burning in purgatory, than they for an ass or sheep which 
they would not leave in the pit one day. Now to keep 
men in torment — to detain them there till the money is paid 
for them, perhaps a few shillings or the price of an old 
coat — is it not to act like Satan, or St. Peter's ^^ false pro- 
phets, who made merchandise of the people ".^ 2 Pet. ii. 3.* 
But why does not the pope keep himself out of it ? For, 
the many masses oflfered for him after his death, which are 
never intended for those in heaven or in hell, proclaim, he 
is himself gone to the flames of purgatory ! And if he 
was grand treasurer of the church, how is it, that he could 
not find as much spiritual treasure in it, even one indul- 



* " We," saith Archbishop Tillotson, " make no money of the mis- 
takes of the people ; nor do we fill their heads with fears of new places 
of torment, to make them empty their purses in a vainer hope to be 
delivered out of them: we do not, like them, pretend a mighty bank and 
treasure of merits in the church, which they sell for ready money, giv- 
ing them bills of exchange from the Pope on Purgatory ,- when they 
who grant them have no reason to believe they will avail them, or be 
accepted in the other world." Til. vol. iii. serm. 30, p. 320. 



160 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 

gence, as would keep himself from torment? And how 
then was there any for others ? So, it is evident, he knew 
his indulgences were mere deceptions J 

We have just seen that one indulgence is of more value 
than many masses ; but now, in the case of the pope, we 
are taught that the masses are better! But if the indulgence 
be a deception, worth nothing, as this case proves it is, and 
yet is above many masses; masses are, therefore, most con- 
clusively, worth nothing. But if the " mass be Jesus Christ 
himself with all his merits," the conclusion then is most 
shocking, namely, that Jesus Christ and all his merits are 
worth nothing! doctors and doctrines most blasphemous 
and infidel ! When these papal doctrines thus conclude in 
necessary blasphemy and infidelity, who not bent on per- 
dition should cleave to them ? 

Nor was money alone in abundance thus obtained by 
these indulgences, but also by them soldiers were procured 
to fight for the popes. Gregory VII., by his legate, Anselra, 
Bishop of Lucca, grants to those who would fight against 
the Emperor Henry IV., the full remission of all their sins. 
This is owned by C. Baronius himself. Pope Victor III. 
granted the same to those M'ho would fight against the Sara- 
cens. And Alexander III., in the twelfth century, grant? 
the same, and " an eternal reward, to all who would fight 
against the Albigenses," because they would rather obey 
Christ and his gospel than the pope. Thus did Pope Ca- 
lixtus II., anno 1122; Eugenius, in 1145; Clement III,, 
in the year 1195, Slc. 

Says Bishop Burnet, "A jubilee \vas after the massacre 
of Paris granted to all who had been in this butchery ; and 
they were commanded to go and bless God for the success 
of that action. The pope sent Cardinal Urson, his legate, 
to France, to thank the king for so great a service done to 
the church, and to desire him to go on, and extirpate heresy, 
root and branch, that it might never grow again. And 
as the legate passed through on his journey to Paris, he 
gave a plenary indulgence to all who had been actors in 
the massacre !" Burnet on the 39 Articles. 

I shall now refer you to Crawshaw's History of Indul- 
gences, as given in the principal churches of Rome, pub- 
lished in London by Bernard Alsop, in 1622 ; for inserting 
them here would not answer my designed brevity. But 



INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 161 

even what have been adduced serve fully to prove what I 
first asserted, that purgatory — and also indulgences, &c. 
&c., first heard of in the eleventh century, as saith Stilling- 
fleet — are mere ingenious inventions, to subserve and en- 
hance the papal grandeur, and minister to the desires and 
opulence of the clergy, every one of whom is to have his 
share by them and purgatory, &;c. I shall only add one or 
two more of another sort. In the Salisbury Primer is re- 
corded, " that Pope John XXII. granted a pardon or indul- 
gence of one million of years for devoutly saying three 
prayers, written in the chapel of the holy cross in Rome." 
And the same book saith, " that John XII., for reciting an- 
other prayer therein as they pass by any church-yard, they 
shall have an indulgence of as many years as there have 
been bodies buried there since its consecration." Again, 
*' That for saying one prayer beginning with '0 boneJesu,'' 
power is granted to change the pains of hell into those of 
purgatory, and after that, those pains again into the joys of 
heaven." This prayer was written on a table, and placed 
in St. Peter's church in Rome, at the high altar where the 
pope says mass.* O that all men had but right views and 
feelings on this and all such subjects ! how soon then would 
priestcraft be at an end, and men give glory to God alone, 
love and obey him, and live in amity and peace with each 
other. May our God and Saviour hasten this happy time ! 

That indulgences and purgatory are but mere frauds is 
gathered even from papal doctors. Cardinal Cajetan writes 
thus in 2d chapter of Indulgences ; " If we could have any 
certainty concerning the origin of indulgences, it would 
help us much in the disquisition of the truth oi purgatory ; 
but we have not by writing any authority either of the Holy 
Scriptures, or ancient doctors, Greek or Latin, which afford 
us the least knowledge thereof."! And Alphonsus de Cas- 
tro writeth, " Many things are known to us, of which the 
ancients were altogether ignorant, as purgatory, indul- 
gences, (fee. "J 

* HorsB B. Virginis Mariae ad Salisburiensis ecclesise ritum cum Ora- 
tionibus et indulgientiis, &c. Paris, an. 1529. See Birckber's Evidence, 
—Fellow of Oxford Col. part i. p. 70, edit. London, 1637. 

f De Ortu Indulgientarum si certitudo habere posset, veritati inda 
gandae opem ferret, &c. Cajet. cap. 2, de ludulg. Opusc. torn. 1, tract 
15, cap. 1. 

i Alphon. de Cast. adv. Hjeres. 1. 12. tit. Purg. f. p. 258. 
14* 



162 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES 

Gabriel Biel, on the Canon of the Mass, lect. 57, sailh, 
" We must confess, that before the time of Gregory, (anno 
596,) the use of indulgences was very little if at all known, 
but now the practice of them is grown frequent ; for the 
Church, without doubt, hath the spirit of Christ her spouse, 
and therefore erreth not."* 

Navarrius, the pope's penitentiary, saith, " What is th 
cause that among the ancients so little mention is made of 
indulgences, and among the moderns they are in such use ? 
John of Rochester, most holy and reverend for his dignity 
of bishop and cardinal, hath taught us the reason, saying, 
that the explicit faith of purgatory or indulgences was not 
so necessary in the primitive church as now ; and again, 
while there was no heed taken to purgatory, and no man 
inquired after indulgences, because thereupon dependeth 
the property and worth of them."t 

Saith St. Anthony, Archbishop of Florence, (whom the 
pope canonized,) "Touching indulgences, we have nothing 
expressly cited in Holy Scripture ; although the saying of 
the apostle be alleged on this subject, (2 Cor. ii. 10,) ' For 
what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, I have 
done it for your sakes m the person of Christ;' nor are 
they found at all in the writings of the ancient doctors, but 
of the modern."! 

Cardinal Fisher saith, " So long as there was no care 
about purgatory, nobody looked for indulgences, for from it 
proceeds all regard for indulgences. When purgatory was 
but so lately known to the universal church or received, it 
is not to be wondered at that in the first time of the church 
there were no indulgences. Of purgatory in the ancient 
fathers there is no mention at all, or very rare, and to this 
day the Greeks believe it not, and the Latins did not all at 
once, but by little and little receive it."§ 

* Dicendum quod ante terapora B. Gregorii, modicus vel nullus fuit 
usus Indul^entiarura, nunc autem crebrescit usus earum, quia, &c. G. 
Biel, lect. 57. 

+ Quare autem apud antiques tarn rara, et apud recentiores tarn fre- 
quens Indulgeiitiarum mentiol &c. — Navar. Com, de Joel et Indulg. 
p. 545. 

i Anton. Sum. S. Theolog. part 1, tit. 10 & 3, de Indul. fol. 202. 
Venetiis, an, 1582. 

§ Quamdiu nulla fuerit de purgatorio cura, nemo qusesivit indulgen- 
tias ; nam ex ilia pendet omnis indulgentiarura existimatio,; quum ita- 



INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 163 

Notwithstanding those testimonies, the gain by them, it 
appears, is so great, that they are even in our day, (most 
shameful to think on !) persisted in and practised. Take a 
view of the plenary indulgence sent by Pope Pius VII. to 
Dr. Moylan, Bishop of Cork, granted on the 14th of May, 
1809, and published in Cork anno 1813, as appears by the 
following extracts from the doctor's pastoral address: 

" Beloved brethren, — Animated with the warmest desires 
of promoting your eternal welfare, we resolved, immediately 
on completing our cathedral chapel, to establish a mission 
in it of pious exercises and instructions for the space of a 
month, and in order to induce our brethren to attend there- 
at, and to profit by those effectual means of sanctification, 
we applied to the holy see for a solemn plenary indulgence^ 
in the form of a jubilee, which the holy father was most 
graciously pleased to grant by a bull, as follows : — 

" ' Pius VII., by divine providence, pope, grants unto 
each and to every one of the faithful of Christ who, after 
assisting at least eight times at the holy exercise of the 
mission, (in the new cathedral of Cork,) shall confess his 
or her sins with true contrition, and approach unto the holy 
communion — shall visit the said cathedral chapel, and there 
offer up to God for some time pious and fervent prayers for 
the propagation of the holy Catholic faith, and to our inten- 
tion, a plenary indulgence, applicable to the souls in pur- 
gatory by way of suffrage, and this inform of a jubilee.^ 

" Such, beloved brethren, is the great, the inestimable 
grace offered to us by the vicar of Jesus Christ ; prepare, 
beloved, prepare your hearts to receive the fulness of the 
divine mercy ^ it is offered to all — let no one refuse to 
accept of it. Let sinners by its means become just, and 
let the just by it become more justified. It is written, God 
will hear us in the acceptable time ; surely this holy time 
of indulgence must be that most acceptable time. Those 
days of grace and m^ercy must be the days of your salva- 
tion. Ah ! profit of them ; be reconciled to your offended 
God. If you neglect this grace — if you suffer this holy 
time of INDULGENCE to pass without profiting by it, there is 

que. Purgatorium tam sero cognitum ac receptum ecclesise fuerit uni- 
versae. A pud Priscos nulla vel quam rarissima fiebat mentio, sed et 
Graecis ad hunc usque diem non est creditum purgatorium esse, &c. 
Roffens. Assert. Lutheran. Confut. art. 18. 



164 INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 

every reason to fear that the time of God's mercy shall pass 
away from you, never more to return. Behold, the trea- 
sures of God's grace are now open to you ! The ministers 
of Jesus Christ, invested with his authority, and animated 
by his Spirit, expect you with a holy impatience, ready to 
ease you of that heavy burden of sin under which you 
have s(j long laboured. Were your sins as red as scarlet, 
by the grace of the absolution and application of this 
plenary indulgence, your souls shall become white as 
snow, (fee. 

" Wherefore, dearly beloved, that you may all know that 
which, according to the btill of his holiness, is necessary 
to gain the benefit of this plenary indulgence, granted in 
form of a jubilee, you will observe, 

" First, That it will commence in the new cathedral 
chapel on the first Sunday in Advent, being the 28th day 
of November instant, and to continue to the festival of St. 
John the evangelist, the 27th day of December. Seconds 
To gain this plenary indulgence it is necessary to be truly 
penitent, to make a good confession, Sic, according to the 
above bull and intention of our holy father the pope, five 
paters, and five aves, and a creed, to the above intention, 
fulfil the above obligations. Thirdly, All priests approved 
of by us to hear confessions can, during the above timb* 
absolve all such persons as present themselves with dm 
dispositions at confession in order to obtain this plenary 
indulgence, from all sins and censures reserved to the 
holy see or to us, they enjoining on such persons as are 
thus absolved, a salutary penance. 

" We order this pastoral letter and instruction to be read 
in every chapel of our diocese, in town and country, at 
every mass, on Sunday the 14th, the 21st, the 28th of No- 
vember instant, and on Sunday the 5th of December next. 
Given at Cork, Nov. 2, 1813/'* 

Here is an indulgence of our own day, in exact unison 
with those of Leo X. for " all sins and censures.'''' 

See the indulgences in the " Scapular," St. Francis 
"Cord," &c., some plenary, and some partial, forgiving 
two-sevenths of their sins, (feet 

* Letters of "Amicus Hibernicus," printed at Dublin, 1816, (by the 
Rrv. Peter Jtoe, of Kilkenny.) 
■j- " By a plenary indulgence a man returns to the state he was in 



INDULGENCES IMPIETIES. 165 

The voice of inspiration is, " If we or an angel from 
heaven preach any other gospel to you but that we have 
preached, let him be accursed." " If any man shall add to 
the words of this book, God shall add unto him the plagues 
that are written in this book. And if any shall take away 
from the words of the book of this prophesy, God shall 
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the 
holy city, and from the things which are written in this 
book." Gal. i. 8. Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

We have just seen, by the confession of several learned 
papal cardinals and doctors, that indulgences were neither 
taught nor practised by Christ or his apostles, nor in the 
primitive church, but are of modern invention ! The^e, 
then, being held up as " replete with grace and salvation," 
are therefore a new gospel, a gospel which the apostles or 
ancients knew not. Hence, instead of being the vehicles 
of all these blessings, must they not, if the apostle spake 
truly, be the very contrary, — be curses to all concerned in 
them ? And is it not most strange that now, in the nine- 
teenth century, the same darkness should continue as pre- 
vailed in the dark ages, and that men of sense and learning 
should not be terrified at such divine denunciations hanging 
over their heads, and cease from these lamentable decep- 
tions ! ! 

If a doctrine be promulgated as from God, to the children 
of men, and as replete with all these inestimable blessings, 
graces, and certain salvation, as above exhibited in the ad- 
dress and bull, and if yet it be found that this doctrine or 
these directions so laid down did not in any wise proceed 
from God, must it not then clearly follow, let the temporal 

after baptism, and did he die that instant his soul would go at once to 
Paradise, without passing through purgatory^ — p. 25. " On the day 
of admission into the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Car- 
mel, and receiving the habit, all the faithful receive a plenary indul- 
gence." Pope Paul v., p. 38. And Honorius III. and Nicholas IV. 
promised to all such who confess and pray for the extirpation of heresy 
the general pardon of all their sins." — p. 45. " To those who, having 
confessed on every Sunday of the year, visit the churches of the Car- 
melite order, an indulgence of eighty -seven years and eighty-seven qua- 
rantines, with the remission of two-sevenths of their sins/// Sixtus 
V." Edited by the very Rev. T. Coleman, Provincial of the C. Car 
melites of Ireland, Dublin, 1826, and sanctioned, he says, by twenty 
eight popes, &c. 



166 DR. MILNER ON INDULGENCES 

gain made thereby be ever so great, that the whole is from 
the grand enemy of God and man, the father of lies, is as 
well blasphemy against Christ as it is an imposture on men 
to their utter ruin? and that those who are occupied in pro- 
mulgating such doctrines and practices, cannot in this be 
the '^ministers of Christy nor be animated by his Spirit,''^ 
but are the direct opposite ? This is granted by papal doc- 
tors themselves. " That church,'''* saith Dr. Manning, 
" that would teach any doctrine but that taught by Christ 
and delivered by his apostles, would not be the chaste 
spouse of Christ, but an harlot, and the school of Sa- 
tan." Short Method, p. 29, 59. 

But this doctrine of indulgences, which Dr. Moylan has 
so extolled as proceeding from God, and containing so 
many blessings, is just proved never to have been heard of 
for many ages after Christ. Hence it demonstrably follows, 
it is from*" the school of Satan," and that all who propa- 
gate these impostures, are therefore by no means the minis- 
ters of Christ. The ponderous weight of this awful con- 
clusion, the doctor and his friends must feel; and must find 
it their duty, in their own defence, to confute all the above 
jmpal doctors, and all antiquity and Scripture, and prove 
against them that these indulgences are from God, belong 
solely to the pope to distribute, contain all these blessings 
for the living and the souls in purgatory, and that Christ 
appointed them to be obtained by the "c^ue^," &c., as above 
specified ; or otherwise, he must fall under all these dread- 
ful imputations, for attempting to forgive sins in a way 
Christ never appointed ; and must expect all the curses de- 
nounced in the Scriptures against those who preach a neiv 
doctrine. But if this task prove impossible, he and his 
brethren should instantly repent, make restitution, give 
back the people's money thus obtained, and ask pardon of 
Christ for having taught such delusive doctrines, and teach 
them no more. 

DR. MILNER ON INDULGENCES AND PURGATORY. 

Before we finally dismiss these subjects, we must take 
leave to redeem our pledge, and bring Dr. Milner's defence 
of them under some brief examination. And first, it is a 
fact that will be freely admitted, that when any advocate is 



EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 167 

found contradicting himself, mis-stating others, but, above 
all, falsifying the gospel of God, or, in other words, belying 
his God to his face, no autliorities he can cite, no quotations 
tie brings, nothing that he says after this, can for a moment 
be minded, much less relied on by any man of sense ; for 
he that dares to turn God's truth, which every one has or 
can have at hand, into a lie, can it be supposed that he will 
not do the same with the writings of men, when he cannot 
be so readily detected, because they are not at hand, or that 
he will stop at any thing when it serves his purpose ? 
2dly. When a writer is seen labouring hard to make others 
receive as truth what is flatly opposed to that which he 
knows, nay, swears is truth, can he be deemed an honest 
man ? or can any one, however large his stretch of charity, 
say that he believes himself? or contemplate him other 
than as a deliberate and odious deceiver ? When Dr. Mil- 
ner's arguments and proceedings in defence of hiS system 
shall have been weighed, I question if his warmest admirers 
shall not be constrained to blush, nay, be sickened to the 
heart for him. On the subject of indulgences, ("End of 
Controversy," let. 42,) while I pass by his empty declama- 
tion and heap of quotations, that can be of no other possible 
use but to try to impress the ignorant that he has the world 
of truth at his back, like a crafty general that makes a great 
show of a vast army at a distance, but when, nothing terri- 
fied, we draw near to them, lo ! it is all a cheat, they are 
but paper soldiers, puppets only! I say, while this sort of 
stuff we leave to others to admire, we adduce the weight 
of all he has said in the following curious extract. 

Saith he, (in accordance with his Trent council,) " The 
essential guilt and eternal punishment of sin can only be 
expiated by the precious merits of our Redeemer, Christ ; 
but a certain temporal punishment God reserves for the 
penitent himself to endure! lest the easiness of his pardon 
should make him careless about falling back again into sin. 
Hence, satisfaction for his temporal punishment has been 
instituted by Christ, as a part of the sacrament of penance ; 
and this very satisfaction is only efficacious through Christ. 
As the promise of the Lord to his apostles — St. Peter in 
particular — and their successors, is unlimited; 'Whatsoever 
you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven,' (Matt 
xvi. 19;) so, the church believes and teaches, that her juris 



16S DK. MILLER ON INDULGENCES 

diction extends to this satisfaction, so as to be able to remit 
it wholly or partially, in certain circumstances, by what is 
called an indulgence ! St. Paul exercised this power in 
behalf of the incestuous man, (2 Cor. ii. 10 ;j and the 
church has claimed and exercised the same power ever 
since the time of the apostles down to the present! But 
there must be a just cause for the exercise of it; namely, 
the greater good of the penitent ! or of the faithful, or of 
Christendom in general ! and there must be a certain pro- 
portion between the punishment remitted and the good work 
performed. Hence, NO ONE CAN EVER BE SURE 
THAT HE HAS GAINED THE ENTIRE BENEFIT 
OF THE INDULGENCE, THOUGH HE HAS PER- 
FORMED ALL THE CONDITIONS APPOINTED 
FOR THIS END ! ! ! And it is the received doctrine of 
the church, that an indulgence, when truly gained, is not 
barely a relaxation of the canonical penance enjoined by the 
church, but also an actual remission, by God himself, of the 
ivhole, or of part of the temporal punishment due to it in 
his sight! ! This explanation of an indulgence, conform- 
ably to the doctrine (<f theologians, the decrees of popes, 
and the definitions of councils, ought to silence the objec- 
tions and suppress the sarcasms of Protestants on this 
head ! ! !" 

That this is indeed the real doctrine of his council and 
of his infallible church to this hour, none will dispute; but 
that in the whole of it there is a tittle of truth, and that he 
could believe there is, who of the least information will at- 
tempt to affirm ? He assumes as divine truths the follow- 
ing most monstrous propositions : 1. That when God acquits 
a penitent of one — the eternal guilt, he still holds him under 
another guilt — the temporal. 2. That he himself must 
endure this latter, and must atone for it here, in the way 
his clergy shall appoint, or in purgatory. 3. That this 
mode of satisfaction was instituted by Christ. 4. That to 
his church he has committed, by an unlimited promise, full 
power to manage this whole business. 5. That such is her 
jurisdiction, she can remit the eternal guilt in the sacrament 
of penance, and the temporal guilt — the whole of it, or a 
part! — by the same, but especially by an indulgence, as did 
St. Paul, and as the church has ever since always done ! 
or, lastly, by masses ; these two last extending to purgatory 



EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 169 

also ! (This must not be forgotten.) 6. Because there 
must be a just proportion between the punishment remitted 
and the good work, i. e. the penance enjoined by the pas- 
tor ; no one can ever be sure, let him perform it ever so 
well, that he has obtained the entire of the remission he 
aimed at ! ! ! Hence, of course, his doubts and alarm must 
ever continue, and his church must devise other new plans 
for his relief, viz. more penance, more indulgences, a jubi- 
lee, extreme unction, and, at the end, purgatory, with more 
indulgences still, masses, and what not, to extricate the poor 
soul ! ! ! Who of the least penetration but must see, in the 
whole, the most injurious, deliberate, and palpable jugglery 
and priestcraft, to drain and enslave the people? and also 
that every one of these assumptions are blasphemous un- 
truths ? 

The doctor knowing, nay, being sworn, " that the New 
Testament is infallible truth," and that the opposite of it is 
falsehood; and reading therein, that when God justifies a 
penitent sinner by his grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, 
"HE JUSTIFIES HIM FROM ALL THINGS"— gives 
him his Holy Spirit, with "love, joy, and peace in his 
soul," and giving him the spirit of adoption to witness his 
salvation to his heart, and incline him to every good word 
and work, and help him against the devil, the world's al- 
lurements, and the sinful propensities of nature — the flesh, 
" He makes him an heir of grace — his reconciled child, and 
a joint heir with Christ,"* as in a moment. Yes, as in a 
moment, "he is passed from death unto life,"t and from 
condemnation, in every sense, to justification and divine 
peace, so as that " there is against him no law." And 
hence, in the Christian dispensation, the last and best of 
all, no such thing as any guilt of temporal punishment 
abides on any whom God thus justifies from eternal guilt. 
1 say, when Dr. Milner had before his eyes all this, and the 
many testimonies just adduced from his own doctors, Car- 
dinals Fisher, Cajetan, &c., " that no indulgences or pur- 
gatory were known in the first ages of the church," can any 
man in his senses say he believed a word he WTOte to sup- 
port indulgences or purgatory, &;c. ? 

• Acts xiii. 38; x. 43. Rom. iii. 24 ; vi. 6, 7 ; v. 1—5, 16 ; vi. IS 
—22; viii. 1, If), 17, 33; x. 12, 13. 

f Juhn V. 24. 1 John i. 7—9. Gal. v, 22, 23. 
15 



170 DR. MILNER ON INDULGENCES. 

His first proposition, " that God divides guilt, and while 
he pardons the greater freely, leaves the penitent himself to 
atone for the less, which he must do by the aid of the 
clergy," as it of course makes out work for them both here 
and in purgatory, so is it the foundation, the impious and 
fell foundation of all the rest, and of the clergy's evil power, 
(for as it is wholly opposed to the gospel, foul, impious, and 
accursed must the doctor himself have believed it to be,) so 
that when this is taken away, when this is blown up by the 
force of gospel truth, the whole structure must rush head- 
long, Babylon then must fall, — fall to rise no more ! Little 
is it therefore to be wondered at that the gospel, which, if 
applied, must thus shatter Babylon and her crafty doctrines 
to atoms, is dreaded more than any thing! I Did the doctor 
harden himself against all truth and his conscience when he 
told the world that Christ instituted indulgences, Slc, that 
St. Paul practised them, and that the Christian church has 
done so ever since? What ! did he indeed believe a syllable of 
this? No, truly. For when God forgives all guilt, then none, 
it is plain, remains on the justified Christian; and to insti- 
tute a mode to remove what exists not is preposterous, and 
to impute such to Christ is diabolical blasphemy! AVhen 
St. Paul and the Corinthians received the wicked man again 
into the Christian society after he had repented, did they 
lay any penance on him, more than did Christ on the pent 
tent adulteress, saying to her, ^'■neither do I condemn thee, 
go, and sin no more?^^ John viii. 11. Where then, in all 
this, is there any papal indulgence ? 

Oh, where was the doctor's shame, candour, or con- 
science, to tell such stories, such wicked tales of Christ 
and his aposdes ? But he says, " the church always prac- 
tised these matters." The doctor, it seems, does not know 
how to blush ! His own doctors, (who had not, it appears, 
arrived then at priestcraft's perfection,) tell him " the first 
churches of Christ heard nothing of these doctrines," yet 
he and his brethren of modern times are deaf to them. 
Hence most conclusive is it he did not, could not believe a 
sentence of all he said in defence of indulgences or purga- 
tory, as every one not an idiot or judicially blinded may see, 
and yet goes on quoting with all effrontery ! ! But who in 
his senses can receive a word of it ? On the next article^ 
purgatory, he is equally ridiculous 



DR. MILNER ON PURGATORY. 171 



DOCTOR MILNER ON PURGATORY. 

On this subject, too, the doctor is, as usual, profuse in 
declamation and pompous vapouring, and most abundant in 
quotations, as if he had both friends and foes to side with 
him. But it is all finesse. And we must say of his reve- 
rence occidit miser OS crambe repitita magisti'os, he pat- 
ters over the old cold rounds again, and does nothing. And 
much as he quotes from the ancients, and their praying for 
the dead, (as Origen and others of them Avho, mistakenly 
believing there was no hell, but a fire that all the saints, even 
the Blessed Virgin, must pass through, taught that prayers 
should be made for them, as I have noticed elsewhere;) 
1 say, much as he quotes such for purgatory, I must affirm 
he could not believe himself that they meant any such 
thing, but used them merely to serve his purpose. The 
sum, however, of all he says on the subject in the shape 
of scriptural argument, is in the following passage in 2d 
page of his forty-third letter. 

Saith he, " What place, I ask, must that be which our 
Saviour called Abraham'' s bosom, where Lazarus reposed, 
(Luke xvi.) among the other just souls, till He, by his 
passion, paid their ransom ? Not heaven, but evidently a 
'middle state. Again, of what place is it that St. Peter 
speaks, (iii. 19,) where Christ preached to those spirits that 
were m prison? It is evidently the same that is mentioned 
in the apostles' creed. He descended into hell, not the hell 
of the damned, surely, but the prison above mentioned, 
or Mraham's bosom; in short, A MIDDLE STATE." 
This is the strength of all he writes. 

That devils are not yet come to their worst torments, 
(nor, therefore, are wicked men,) is clear from the gospel. 
Matt. viii. 29. Said they to Christ, "Art thou come to tor- 
ment us before the time ?" Hence it may be said they are 
in a middle state, " reserved under darkness to that day;" 
^and the saints will not arrive at their highest glory till at 
the resurrection they shall get their bodies, and then "take 
possession of the kingdom prepared for them." Matt. xxv. 
34 Hence Abraham's bosom may well be termed a middle 
state, yet neither are in any state of mutation, nor hence in 



172 DR. MILNER ON PURGATORY 

any purgatory. Besides the New Testament, to whicli 
whatsoever is opposed Dr. Milner and all his brethren be- 
lieve is falsehood, teacheth us abundantly that as death leaves 
men such shall the judgment find them. "All must appear 
before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may 
receive the things done in his body, according to that he 
hath done, whether it be good or bad."* Hence can no 
change ivhatever take place from death to that day. The 
converse of this proposition the doctor must believe, even 
on oath, would be falsehood ; therefore could neither he nor 
his church teach that there is a purgatory, where a change 
can be made, and souls be relieved, without believing they 
were teaching absolute untruth ! And of course they could 
not avoid believing that, by every quotation they adduced, 
every word they spoke, every mass they offered, and every 
prayer they made or caused to be made to rescue souls from 
purgatory, or in any wise change their state, they were 
opposing Christ and his gospel, — teaching the direct oppo- 
site to truth, and deceiving mankind. I repeat it, all this 
they either must have believed of themselves as clearly as 
that night is not day, or have taken leave of their reason 
and become worse than bedlamites. 

Having thus demonstrated that no man in his senses, and 
that at all believes in Christ and his gospel, can possibly 
believe in purgatory, prayers for the dead, indulgences, and 
the rest of it, and that all who practise such doctrines are 
impiously following falsehoods, and the father of them of 
course, and -flying daily in the face of God to their undoing, 
I shall now notice the doctor's curious arguments, or rather 
sophistries. 

" That souls are in a middle state, called Abraham's 
bosom, or Paradise ; and that this middle state is the hell, 
the prison into which Christ descended with the pardoned 
thief, and therefore is purgatory," the doctor argues ; and 
thus at once proves his point most manfully and most mar- 
vellously too ! that certainly there is a purgatory. 

Now let us see : " This middle state of the saints is, with 
us, Abraham's bosom or paradise, the third heaven;" so far 
are both agreed. But with him and his church, "this same 

• 2 Cor. V. 1, 10. Rev. xx. 13. Matt. xxv. 34—46. 



EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 173 

middle state is also a prison, a hell, a purgatory!" and, 
consequently, " all the saints, with Moses, Elias, Lazarus, 
(fee, were, before Christ's death, in this prison or bosom 
of Abraham, comforted together till Christ descended to 
release them !"* So then, with the doctor, " the bosom of 
Abraham, or purgatory, or the third heaven, (2 Cor. xii. 4,) 
is a prison, is hell, is purgatory;" if not, he can find, it ap- 
pears, no purgatory! Well then, first, "this is a prison, 
and Lazarus, Abraham, Moses, &c., were held there, and 
could not get out by any means, till Christ, after his death, 
went down to preach to them and release them." But did 
the doctor in his haste forget, " that Moses and Elias ap- 
peared in majesty on the mount with the Lord, and Peter, 
James, and John, and there conversed with Him about the 
death he was to suffer?" (Luke ix. 30;) by which they 
prove, contrary to the doctor, that they were held in no 
prison whatever before Christ's death, nor therefore were 
any of the saints so held. Hence, they have spoiled the 
doctor's and his infallible church's fine theory, and demo- 
lished his prison totally ! And of course he must eithei 
have forgotten himself when he was framing this tale, or he 
did not, could not, believe himself that he was telling th-a 
truth 1 And hence we prove against him and his brethren 
that the saints' middle state, or Abraham's bosom, or para 
disc, is not either a prison or a purgatory ! 

2. But the doctor's middle state, or Abraham's bosom 
or paradise, or third heaven, being a prison or hell, or pur 
gatory, and, in order to rescue souls out of this sad prison, 
hell, or purgatory, and if possible keep those out of it who 
have not yet gone to it, that the celestial treasures of in- 
dulgences must be procured, many masses offered, much 
prayer made, and penance, weighty penance performed, 
(yes, weighty, for the doctor and his church tell us that 
enough is scarcely ever laid on by the clergy ;) I say, as 

* The prison in 1 Pet. iii. is explained, p. 145. The ''hell," in the 
creed, is a mere mistake, being opposed to the gospel that saith " Christ 
and the penitent thief went to paradise." In this creed, first found in 
Rufinus's church, in the fifth century, was "descendit ad infernal which 
meant "buried" or '■^descending to the lower parts, or to hell " but 
the word '■^buried" was afterwards added, which makes the mistake. 
See Bp. Burnet on art. 3d of the 39 Articles. 
15- 



*74 DR. MILNE R ON PURGATORY 

this prison, or purgatory, or hell, is Abraham's bosom, or 
paradise, the third heaven, the saints' middle state, then it 
must follow, that the priests must lay on all these penances, 
and that the people must perform them, and procure these 
vast treasures of indulgences, &c. &lc, ; and all this, that 
such miserable souls as are in Abraham's bosom, paradise, 
or heaven, may be rescued from it — from this middle state ! 
and that these now on earth may ever be kept out of it and 
its sorrows ! O ye sapient doctors, this is your .divinity, 
with a witness. And so ye believe ye should lay on all 
these penances, &c. &c., to preserve, or rescue the souls 
of the faithful from the comforts of Abraham's bosom, from 
the joys of paradise, and save them from the third heaven ! 
And ye people, ye wise people, say now, ought ye not to 
submit to any penance, get indulgences, &c., at any cost, 
and pay the priests well, that you thus may be kept from 
the sufferings of heaven, and that your friends who are 
there may be rescued from it as soon as possible ? 

3. These angelic doctors, of course, either believe that 
Abraham's bosom, the soul's middle state, or paradise, or 
the third heaven, is a prison, a hell, a purgatory, or that 
there is no purgatory at all, and that the doctrine that saith 
there is such a purgatory is a falsehood ! and that all who 
teach it and the system connected with it, are therefore ac- 
cursed false prophets ! and, it being opposed to Christ and 
his gospel, that it is antichristian ; and being sworn to teach 
it, that they are of course sv/orn antichrists, going in the 
broad way to destruction. Hence, I say, thus believing, as 
they must, they can no longer avoid seeing the absolute and 
instant necessity of abandoning purgatory, with indulgences, 
penances, and all the etceteras connected therewith, or re- 
solve sooner than do so, to perish eternally. Another con- 
sequence must be obvious ; it is this : the people must 
either shake off all such degrading, superstitious, and 
dangerous trammels, and embrace God's truth, or be con- 
tent to abide in them and suffer for such madness for- 
ever. 

Having thus, from Dr. Milner's own premises, been con- 
ducted to these tremendous conclusions, and having opened 
up this awful system of religion, I, in the fear of God, and 
in the name of Jesus Christ, lay the whole before my fel 



EXAMINED AND CONFUTED. 175 

low Irishmen for their due consideration, praying that they 
and I may so run that we meet in paradise to rejoice to- 
gether forever. 

I am, for Christ's sake, 

Most gladly the servant of all, 

GIDEON OUSELEY. 

Uh edit., Dublin, May 28, 1827. 

P. S. Should any come forth in a fair and Christian way 
in vindication of the doctor and of his church, we shall have 
great pleasure in hearing him. 



LETTER V. 



TEANSUBSTANTIATION 



AN 



IMPOSSIBILITY; 



AS IS PROVED BY SCRIPTURE, REASON, ANCIENT FATHERS, 
POPES, CARDINALS, AND PAPAL DOCTORS, AS WELL AS B\ 
PROTESTANT DIVINES ; AND ENDS IN INFIDELITY AND 
RUIN. 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Kev. Sir — You will have the goodness to suffer me again 
to address you, and to lay before you my arguments on this 
important subject, which, I pray, may, in the hand of that 
God who deigns to use weak things for his glory, answer 
the end intended, even the good, the union, and happiness 
of his children, in time and eternity; and also the honour 
of his great name. 

This doctrine, it is affirmed, is found in our Lord's 
institution of the eucharist. Matt. xxvi. 26 — 29. "And 
as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and 
brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said. Take, eat, 
tliis is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, 
and gave it to them, saying. Drink ye all of it : for this is 
my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many, 
for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not 
drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when 
I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." And in 
Luke xxii. 19, 20, "And he took bread, and gave thanks, 

17G 



TRANSUBSTANTIATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 177 

and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, 
which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me. 
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the 
new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." See 
also Mark xiv. 22—24. 1 Cor. xi. 23—26. 

The meaning of these words, " This is my body," &c., 
one might suppose is plain enough ; yet a mighty contro- 
versy has arisen about them, which has lasted these thou- 
sand years past. It began in the eastern church, in the 
second council of Nice, in 787, but more especially in the 
time of Peschasius Radbertus, about the year 820.* He 
wrote a book to show that Christ changed the bread and 
wine of the eucharist, by the words of the institution, into 
his real body and blood, as born of the virgin Mary, and 
also gave power to all priests, by duly repeating the same 
words he used, to do the same. But in these opinions he 
was then opposed by many learned men of his own church, 
by Scotus, Rabanus Maurus, and particularly by the learned 
and pious Ratramnus, or Bertram, who, at the request of 
the Emperor Charles the Bald, wrote with much ability a 
book on the body and blood of our Lord, which remains 
to this day. Still the controversy went on from age to age 
to the year 1215, when transubstantiation was, by the coun- 
cil of Lateran, as Bellarmine writes, at length made a dog- 
ma of faith. In the fourteenth century it was opposed by 

* "The doctrine of the corporal presence of Christ in the eucharist," 
saith the learned Tillotson, " was first started upon occasion of a dispute 
about the worship of images: in opposition whereto the synod of Con- 
stantinople, about the year 750, did argue thus : 'That our Lord having 
hft no other image of himself but the sacrament, in which the sub- 
stance of bread, S(C., is the image of his body, we ought to make no 
other image of our Lord.^ But the council of Nice, in 787, being re- 
solved to support the image worship, did on the contrary declare that the 
sacrament, after consecration, is not the image and antitype of Christ's 
body and blood, but is properly his body and blood." Cardinal Bellar- 
mine, L. i. De Eucharistia, tells the same, but evidently with a quibble. 
*None of the ancients' saith he, 'who wrote of heresies hath put this 
error (of the corporal presence) in his catalogue, nor did any of them 
dispute about this error fur the first six hundred years.' " True," said 
the archbishop, " for as this doctrine of transubstantiation was not in 
being during the first six hundred years and more, as I have shown, 
there could then be none to dispute against it." Tillot. on Transub. 
ser. xxvi. p. 182. 



178 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

the famous WicklifFe, and from thence to the present day 
the contest has been vehemently carried on. 

When I look at the multitude of learned men that have for 
so many ages been employed; the numerous and voluminous 
controversies that have been written on this subject; the hor- 
rible cruelties that have been exercised against those who op- 
posed this doctrine ; the contentions and struggles that have 
agitated the Christian world for so many hundreds of years, 
and the seas of blood that have been spilt because of it, I 
stand amazed ! and should at first sight be ready to think 
it must be of so intricate a nature, and clogged with such 
difficulties, that it would be presumption in so weak an in- 
strument as I am now to venture to touch it ; yet my views 
of it are such that it may, I think, be brought into a very 
narrow compass, and be made plain and easy to be com- 
prehended by any man of common understanding and ho- 
nesty. And as this is the bone of contention, the main 
point of difference between all Romanists and Protestants, 
it would surely be desirable to remove it, that they hence- 
forth, as brethren, and as children of that Father with whom 
they wish to live forever, might, according to his holy will, 
learn sweetly to think and speak alike, and love one another. 
In order to accomplish so glorious a work, I feel it my duty 
to my God and my fellow-men to state my ideas. If any 
good thereby be done, if even one soul be profited, it will 
more than compensate. But should I fail in this labour of 
love, my record is on high, and it can only be said, ^'■Mag- 
nis tamen excidit ausis,'' — " He failed in a noble enter- 
prise." 

Waiving, for a moment the opinions on either side, in 
order with the greater facility and certainty to be led to the 
TRUTH, I shall premise a few plain propositions. 

1st. That existence could not be produced by non-exist- 
ence ; therefore the existence of Him who gave their exist- 
ence to all created beings could not begin to be, for it would 
involve this contradiction, that he existed before he existed. 
Hence he is necessarily eternal, without beginning or end ; 
is infinitely perfect, and therefore eternally immutable; con- 
.sequently that all his divine attributes, natural and moral, 
are so likewise. Hence, as darkness could not be the off- 
spring of light, man, his creature and offspring, though now 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 179 

fallen and sinful, could not when created be otherwise than 
perfect, and worthy such a parent. 

2d. A revelation for the good of fallen man, proceeding 
from this infinitely good and perfect Being, must be per- 
fecdy consistent with all his attributes, with the good of 
man, and with itself also ; hence it must be true in all its 
parts, and contain in itself, therefore, internal evidence of 
its divine origin. 

3d. This revelation, which we have, informs us that in 
the unity of this unoriginate divine nature, Jehovah, by 
whom all things were created, there exists a plurality of 
persons, the Father, the Son — Logos, or Eternal Life — and 
the Holy Ghost, co-equal and co-eternal. That the second 
person, sent by the Father to deliver man from his sin and 
misery, and to exalt him to all possible felicity, dignity, and 
to life eternal, assumed human nature, and being born of a 
woman, became a perfect man, like unto us in all things, 
sin only excepted; that he died in due time as a sin-offering 
to atone for man ; that he rose from the grave and ascended 
\nto heaven to be our Mediator; that his body is no longer 
mortal, but being glorified, is become immortal, impassible, 
md immutable, to which or from which, therefore, nothing 
can be added or taken away forever; and that the Holy 
Ghost, the third person, sanctifies believers, and thus fits 
them for glory. 

4th. There are certain things, both moral and natural, 
which (with reverence) are impossible, even to the Al- 
mighty. To instance, Jehovah cannot lie or do any injus- 
tice ; or make or annihilate himself or any of his perfec 
tions ; or work contradictions. He cannot make a thing to 
be and not to be at the same time ; or make things that are 
different from each other to be the same ; or that a child 
could be twice born of the same mother, or of any other 
creature; or that what is numerical and local is not numeri- 
cal and local ; or that a whole should not be greater than 
its part; nor can he make that which is already made, be- 
cause this would imply that it was not made though it was, 
or that it was now made when it was not, and therefore 
would involve a double falsehood or contradiction. This, 
when applied to Christ at his last supper, will show that 
to make himself then was an utter impossibility. To assert 
that God can do these, or such things, is to say things im 



1 so TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

])Ossible to him are possible to him, that is, that he can 
work contradictions : which to say would be not to honour 
but to blaspheme him. 

5th. The sacred writers of the Holy Scriptures wrote 
under the influence of inspiration, or they did not. If not, 
we have no certain foundation of our faith, and Christianity 
is at an end. But if they were under the infallible inspira- 
tion of God, as St. Peter, (2 Pet. i. 21,) and St. Paul, (2 
Tim. iii. 16,) aifirm they were, whatsoever contradicts them 
must be false. It being admitted, then, that the apostles 
and evangelists of our Lord were divinely inspired, they 
must have been therefore the best expositors of his words, 
and the accounts they have given us must have been in- 
fallibly true, and consequently not to be contradicted or 
changed forever. 

6th. Now the record which the sacred writers have given 
us of Christ our Saviour is, that " He was that divine 
Logos, that Eternal Life, who was with the Father from 
everlasting ; that all things were made by him, both in 
heaven and earth ; that he made the worlds ; and that he is 
that seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's 
head, or destroy the works of the devil ; that he was of the 
seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and of the house 
of David ; was born of a virgin, in the reign of Caesar Au- 
gustus ; was an infant, then a boy, grew up to be a man ; 
was baptized of John in the Jordan ; fasted forty days in 
the wilderness ; was tempted of the devil, and conquered 
him ; was a preacher of the gospel for more than three 
years ; was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter; was taken 
and accused by the Jews; was scourged and condemned by 
Pilate : was crucified between two thieves, died, and was 
buried ; rose again, and in the presence of his disciples 
ascended up to heaven, &c. &c. In all this both sides are 
agreed, and grant that to contradict this record would be to 
overturn Christianity. 

7th. Should any person whatever present unto us any 
being, animate or inanimate, and produced by what power 
soever, as Jesus Christ, yet devoid of the aforesaid charac- 
teristics, it is plain, that if he to whom these belong be the 
true Christ, that this being to which they do not belong, 
cannot be the true Christ, but must necessarily be eithe^ 
some mistake or imposture. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 181 

8th. When any doctrine is promulgated, which would 
necessarily subvert Christianity, and consequently the sal- 
vation of men, it must follow, it came not from Christ, but 
from his adversary; and that such as publish or teach it 
must be influenced by the latter, and cannot be Christ's 
servants. 

If these propositions be self-evident truths, in which both 
sides agree, let them be but applied to this subject^ and the 
truth must soon appear, all differences cease, and peace and 
Christian love follow. 

There is one question only which now demands our 
notice : Is the doctrine of the papal church respecting 
transuhstantiation, sacrifice of the mass, worship of the 
host, and half -communion, supported by the rational inter- 
pretation of holy writ? To enter into the force of this 
question, it will be necessary to adduce a correct statement 
of that doctrine, in reference to these subjects severally, as 
it is set forth in the canons and decrees of the council of 
Trent, and as it is explained by writers of high authority 
in your communion, which is as follows : — 

"■ Since Christ our Redeemer," saith the council of Trent, 
" has said, that, that was truly his own body which he 
offered under the appearance of bread ; it has therefore 
been always believed in the church of God, and it is now 
again declared by this holy council — That by the consecra- 
tion of the bread and wine, there is effected a conversion 
of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of 
the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of 
the wine into the substance of his blood; which conversion 
is fitly and properly termed, by the holy catholic church, 
Transubstantiation.* 

1. *' If any one shall deny that in the most holy sacra- 
ment of the eucharist, there are contained, truly, really, and 
substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul 

* " De Transubstantione. Quoniam autem Christus Redemptor nos- 
ier, corpus suum id, quod sub specie panis offerebat, vere esse dixit ; 
ideo persuasum semper in ecclesia Dei fuit, idque tunc denuo, sancta 
hsec synodus declarat, per consecrationem panis et vini conversionem 
fieri totius suhstantiae panis in substantiam corporis Christi Domini 
itostriy et totius substantias vini, in substantiam sanguinis ejus .• quse 
conversio convenienter et proprie a sancta catholica ecclesia transiib 
stantio est appellata. Concil. Trid. sees. xiii. cap. iv. 
16 



182 ^ TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; or say that he is in 
it only as in a sign, or figure, or by his influence, let him 
be accursed ! 

2. "If any one shall say that in the sacrament of the eu- 
charist, the substance of the bread and wine remains together 
with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall 
deny the wonderful and singular conversion of the whole 
substance of the bread into his body, and the whole sub- 
stance of the wine into his blood, the appearances only of 
bread and wine remaining, which conversion the catholic 
church most properly terms Transubstantiation — let him be 
accursed !* 

3. "If any one shall deny, that in the adorable sacrament 
of the eucharist, whole Christ is contained in each element 
or species, and in the separate parts of each element or 
species, a separation being made, let him be accursed." 

"I also believe," saith the creed of Pius IV., "that in 
the mass, a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice is offered 
unto God, for the living and the dead ; and that the body 
and blood, with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, is truly, really, and substantially, in the most holy 
sacrament of the eucharist, and that there is a conversion 
made of the whole substance of the bread into his body, 
and the whole substance of the wine into his blood ; which 
conversion the catholic church calls Transubstantiation. I 
also acknowledge that whole and entire, and a true sacra- 
ment, is received under either kind only."t 

* De Transubstantione. " Canon I. Si quis negaverit in sanctis- 
simse eucharistise sacramento contineri vere, realiter, et substantialiter, 
corpus et sanguinem una cum anima et divinitate Domini nostri Jesu 
Christi, ac proinde totura Christum ; sed dixerit tantummodo esse in eo 
ut in signo, vel figura, aut virtute ; anathema sit. 

" Canon II. Si quis dixerit in sacrasancto eucharistiae, sacramento 
remanere substantiara panis et vini una cum corpore et sanguine Domini 
nostri Jesu Christi, negaveritque mirabilera illam et singularem conver- 
sionem totius substantiae panis in corpus, et totius substantias vini in 
sanguinem, manentibus dumtaxat speciebus panis et vini : quam quidem 
conversionem catholica ecclesia aptissirae Transubstantionem appeliat ; 
anathema sit." 

" Canon III. Si quis negaverit invenerabile sacramento eucharistise, 
sub unaquaque specie, et sub singulis cuj usque speciei partibus, separa- 
tione facta, totum Christum contineri; anathema sit." Cuncil. Trid. 
gess. xiii. 

f Profiteor paritcr in missa offeri Deo, verum, proprium et propitiato- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 183 

** The papist, truly represented," saith the ingenious Go- 
ther, "believes it abominable to commit any kind of idola- 
try^ and most damnable to worship or adore a breaden 
God, or to give divine honour to the elements of bread and 
wine. He believes of the most holy sacrament of the eu- 
charist, consecrated now by priests, that it really contains 
the body of Christ which was delivered for us, and his 
blood which was shed for the remission of sins ; which 
being there united with the divinity, he confesses the ivhole 
Christ to be presents, and him he adores and acknowledges 
his Redeemer, and not any bread or wine. With this faith 
he believes every mystery of his religion, the Trinity, in- 
carnation, &c. He unfeignedly confesses, that he thai 
maile the world of nothing but his sole word, that raised 
the dead and cured diseases by his word, that multiplied 
bread by his word, that changed water into wine by his 
word, and sinners into just men, cannot want power to 
change bread and wine into his body and blood by his 
word : and this without danger of multiplying his body, of 
making as many Christs as altars, or leaving the right hand 
of his Father ; but only by giving his body a supernatural 
manner of existence," &c. &c. 

By confounding dissimilar propositions — truth and error, 
possibilities and impossibilities ; by bold assumptions, and 
palpable mis-statements — this mighty doctor essays to de- 
fend his council ! And the aim of all his labour is to prove 
that God can work an impossibility ! that Christ, though 
born of a woman, yet made himself of bread ! and that 
priests, by his power, can do the same ! Most wonderfui 
discoveries ! He argues, because God did things possible, 
and which involve no self-contradiction, that therefore he 
did, and can likewise as easily do things impossible, and 
which involve self-contradictions ! But if self-contradictions 
are falsehoods, then this logician, such is his divinity, 

rium sacrificium pro vivis et defunctis; atque in sanctissimo eucharistiae 
Sacramento esse, vera, realiter, et substantialiter, corpus et sanguinem, 
una cum anima et divinitate Domini nostriJesu Christi, fierique conver- 
sionem totius substantise panis in corpus et totius substantite vini in san- 
guinem ; quam conversionem catholica ecclesia Transubstantionem ap- 
pellat. Fateor etiam sub utraque tantum specie, totum atque integrum 
Christum, verumque sacramentum sumi. Constit. Con. Trid. Bull. 
Pii IV. p. 23, an. 1564. 



184 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

wishe? us to believe God can work falsehoods ! This is 
logic with a vengeance, worthy so learned a divine ! '■'■Par- 
turiunt monies J ^ 

Now, what must be that system which cannot be other- 
wise supported ? But had the doctor only proved in any 
one instance that God ever wrought a contradiction or an 
impossibility, that he created or made any thing already 
made, or converted any one substance into what it already 
was, then it might be said he did something towards prov- 
ing " that Christ made himself." So, because the Lord 
made the world, raised the dead, changed water into wine, 
created man of earth, &c. &c., things not already done, and 
which involve no contradiction, therefore "Ae can make 
himself,^'' and consequently can likewise raise from the dead 
one not dead, change water into wine that already was wine, 
&c., even as he made himself many years after his body 
was created. Such are his mighty arguments ! 

So then the talented Gother, the famed, the admired doc- 
tor of all Romanists, tells us wonders indeed ! He tells us, 
the whole Christ is, by a priest's consecration, present in the 
eucharist, and thut to adore it is not idolatry, is not dam- 
nable: yet the inspired apostles it seems were ignorant of 
this, and did not adore it or Christ in it ! Either then they 
did not believe him there, and counted it idolatry and dam- 
nahle to adore it thus, or they were guilty of neglecting to 
adore their Lord, and of course were not inspired ! 

But if they were not ignorant nor mistaken, nor neglect- 
ful of their duty to Christ in not adoring the eucharist, as 
did the doctor, it is conclusive that the doctor and his breth- 
ren are guilty of departing from the apostle's example, and 
of damiiable idolatry in adoring the eucharist, and that in 
so doing they have adored the work of their own hands, 
the idol of their own devising ! 

And if their faith embraces such self-contradictions and 
idolatries as ^'■divine mysteries,''^ and that the trinity and 
incarnation are similar mysteries, then must they unavoid- 
ably be self-contradictions and idolatrous falsehoods ! and 
thus their faith, and O what a faith, teacheth them to up- 
root Christianity, and plunge themselves in infidelity and 
eternal destruction ! And it further teacheth them, " that 
Christ's human body can be made of bread and wine on 
every altar, without any danger of making as many Christs 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 185 

as there are altars, or of his leaving the right hand of his 
Father." So then his true body can be only in one place, 
and can be everywhere; but his human body was in all 
things, sin excepted, like ours ! If so, then it follows we 
can be in every place too, and of course be gods ! for God 
only can be everywhere. Or if his body was unlike ours, 
then he could not have been true Christ, and Christianity is 
uprooted, and hence the doctor's religion, which cannot be 
otherwise maintained, is necessarily the very antichrist's 
system. 

But if these latter are glaringly absurd, so also must be 
the former, and then his cause is lost. He might as well 
have argued, Because God doth good, and just, and wise 
actions, therefore he can do the contrary, which is blas- 
phemy ! Again, he argues. As Christ wrought many mira- 
cles, which all then present could evidently see and know 
to be such, so also he hath wrought a miracle in the sacra- 
ment, which nobody then present saw, and which none 
could ever see ! Marvellous reasoning ! Now, when our 
Lord pronounced the words to raise the dead, had the dead 
man not stirred, but remained dead : or had the winds anO 
seas continued to roar when he bid them be still : or the 
water remained water, as did the eucharistic bread after his 
consecration of it remain bread, without any visible change . 
who could have believed any miracle or change was wrough' 
in the former things, and therefore not in the latter? Hence 
his cause is self-overthrown. 

Again, he asserts, in the case of the angels appearing as 
men, the Holy Spirit appearing as a dove, &c., the senses 
of those present were deceived, hence he infers it could be 
so in the matte^ of the eucharist. But he does not attempt 
to prove that all their senses combined examined these 
cases, and were deceived ; for had all been deceived, how 
could they have ever found their mistake ? This, then, is 
a mere assumption, a quibble ! which, if true, however 
would tear up the very foundations of Christianity, for the 
person of our Lord, his doctrines, miracles, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension could not be known but by the senses. 
But if the combination of the senses of all men could, in 
every age and now, be deceived in the matter of the sacra- 
ment, so they might have been deceived in our Lord's days 
16* 



186 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

likewise with regard to him, and so would our foundation 
be gone, and Christianity be no more. 

Further, he misstates ; he says " that our Lord, even 
before his death or glorification, nay, when an unborn in- 
fant, gave to his body the properties of a spirit, and in this 
wise was born, leaving his mother a virgin still ! and in this 
wise came forth through the great stone out of the tomb !" 
&;c. Consequently, that his human body could in this wise 
be in the sacrament also ; yea, and at the same instant not 
only in heaven, but on every altar on earth, though not in 
the intermediate spaces ! therefore that he was at the sacra- 
ment as a man like unto us, and in it as a spirit not like 
unto us ! It will follow, then, that he was a man like unto 
us, and in one place only, and yet not in one place only, 
but in every place a priest may please to consecrate the 
host ! But Christ our Lord contradicts and at once over- 
throws this visionary papal fabric ; for even after his resur- 
rection he declares, "-He was not a spirit, but a real man, 
having flesh and bones^ Luke xxiv. 39. Scripture also 
says, ''''He was like unto us in all things, sin only ex- 
cepted.''^ '•'■An angel rolled away the stone from the 
tomb.'^ Matt, xxviii. 2. — Heb. ii. 17. Now, were this 
assertion true that our Lord had this sort of body, it would 
instantly annihilate Christianity, for had he this two-fold 
sort of body, and been thus born, he could not have been 
true man, like unto us, who have no such body, nor there- 
fore be true Christ ! 

♦' He believes transubstantiation on the same ground that 
he does the mystery of the Trinity and incarnation," &c., 
and thus equalizes them. Here, also, he wofully stumbles. 
That God made this world by his word is a fact we cannot 
deny, although how done is above our reason ; that in the 
one divine nature, Jehovah, there are three persons, co- 
equal and co-eternal, yet not three and one in the same 
sense, hence not involving any contradiction ; therefore, 
though above our reason, not contrary to it, we, on the au- 
thority of revelation, equally believe. But this dogma, ''^un- 
known to the ancients, both name and thing,'''' as saith the 
learned Erasmus, on 1 Cor. xi. 23 — 29, and which involves 
manifest contradictions, nor therefore hath any legitimate 
Scripture foundation, who can believe ? That bread is flesh 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 187 

and wine is blood, or that a consecrated wafer or a small por- 
tion of wine should be separately and individually the very 
body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
opposes not only all probability, but all possibility ; over- 
turns and disarranges the entire physical constitution of our 
nature; and, under the venerable sanctions of faith and 
religion, most egregiously insults the convictions and dic- 
tates of the understanding. 

To conclude, — " The papist, truly represented, believes 
it damnable idolatry to worship a breaden god, or any 
bread and wine," &c. A mere flourish ! Does he not, I 
ask, worship the host ? If any of these many defects men- 
tioned in his missal, and which it is impossible to guard 
against, occur in the consecration, he must admit the bread 
and wine remain as they were, and it is plain they must 
remain so. Hence the host is bread and wine still. They, 
then, who worship the host, say what he will to the con- 
trary, do therefore worship bread and wine, and most 
clearly run into this very idolatry he would seem so much 
to abhor. 

"After the consecration," saith Dr. Challoner, in the 
same strain, " provided there be no defects, there remains 
nothing of the inward substance of the bread and wine, but 
the outward appearances only; and then, Jesus Christ him- 
self, true God and true man, soul, body, and divinity, who 
was born of the blessed Virgin, and sufl'ered on the cross, 
is truly, really, and substantially present in the eucharist ; 
that the sacrifice of the eucharist is the same as that of the 
cross, and not two distinct sacrifices, as Jesus never had 
but one body ; with this only difference, that the sacrifice 
of the cross once for all, (that one offering by which we are 
perfected forever,) is a bloody sacrifice, because Christ 
REALLY died on the cross : and that of the altar is an un- 
bloody sacrifice, as there he only dies mystically, inasmuch 
as his death is represented in the consecrating apart, the 
bread and wine, to denote the shedding of his sacred blood 
from his body at the time of his death. And although it is 
the officiating priest that consecrates and offers, yet, inas- 
much as he acts not in his own name, but as Christ's vice- 
gerent, in his name and person, when he comes to the con- 
secration of the elements, (in which this sacrifice essentially 
(tonsists,) saying, This is my body, this is the chalice of 



188 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

my blood, iz:c. ; therefore, it is Christ himself who offers 
the sacrifice of the altar also, even the selfsame Christ who 
offered the sacrifice of the cross, — because he is the princi- 
pal priest, therefore that of the altar and that of the cross 
are but one and the same sacrifice ; for, the sacrifice of the 
cross on which he died is the same as that of the eucha- 
rist" ! ! ! Chall. Catholic Christian, pages 23, 24, 44, 69, 
70, 73. 

Who can understand all this ? Did these learned bishops 
themselves comprehend it? Hard indeed was their fate to 
try to make east and west meet — to reconcile flat contradic- 
tions, and defend an impossibility. Hence their perplexity. 
The doctrine contained in these authentic documents, and 
believed by your church, is plainly this, that by the act of 
consecration in the sacrament of the eucharist, the elements 
of bread and wine are actually, really, and substantially 
converted into the actual, real, and substantial body and 
blood of our adorable Redeemer — that numerical, identical 
body that suffered, agonized, and died on the cross — that 
identical body that is now glorified at the right hand of the 
Father ! It is further believed that each of these consecrated 
elements becomes also separately and individually the body 
and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; so that the whole of 
Christ — " body, soul, and divinity," is contained in the 
bread separately, and in the wine separately ; and that there- 
fore, this bread and wine become separately entitled to all 
the expressions of outward homage and adoration, whether 
preserved in the church or exhibited in processions for the 
edification of the multitude ! 

According to Dr. Challoner, " In the sacrament of the 
altar, there is every appearance of bread and wine ; yet 
neither bread nor wine is there." The same Christ who 
bled and died really on the cross, is there, and dies there 
too ; " for the sacrifice of the cross on which he died \? 
the same as that of the eucharist ; yet, he dies only mysti- 
cally ;^'' that is, he does not really die there, but represent- 
atively, denotatively, figuratively, or mystically, as he 
saith. Are not all these self-contradictions as plain as words 
can make them, and a flat denial that the real body, blood, 
and death of Christ are in the eucharist ; and therefore, a 
total overthrow of transubstantiation ? nay, it is the very 
doctrine of Protestants, who contend, he is there representa- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 18& 

tively, figuratively, or mystically only. "This sacrifice, 
this body on the ahar, is the same as that on the cross. '* 
This same body, and that same body, if there can be any 
meaning in words, are evidently two bodies. So, one is 
two, and not two! most marvellous! "It is immolated; 
i. e. slain on the altar daily, but not really i"* "It is offered 
up in real sacrifice to God ; but denotatively only." That 
is, it is slain, and offered really, and it is not ! " It is in 
one place only, that is, in heaven ;" yet, it is not in one 
place only, but "in many!" "Each priest immolates or 
slays it on every altar, and offers it up;" yet, he doth not 
so, but " it is Christ himself who doth so !" What is all 
this, but a heap of unqualified contradictions ? The bishop 
doubtless did as well as in such a case he possibly could, 
but who can defend impossibilities ? 

Whether the arguments of these famed writers be suc- 
cessful and conclusive, and this doctrine, which even they 
could in no other way support, can possibly be of God, 
each candid mind, with a moment's attention, may now 
judge. When any report is supported by equivocation 
and subtil ty, it is instantly pronounced ybf/se; a doctrine 
similarly defended must therefore be false. But, equivo- 
cation and subtleties, and plain contradictions, are evidently 
the weapons employed by those divines to defend" this their 
favourite doctrine. Hence, how can any impartial mind 
avoid pronouncing it a false doctrine ? A known false doc- 
trine destroys the soul, but these doctors are sworn to per- 
sist till death in this doctrine, which is proved false; must 
it not then follow that they are sworn to destroy themselves 
and their people, body and soul forever ? Should they not 
then, and all concerned, pause, and take a seasonable alarm, 
while yet mercy may be found, and give it up at once, 
rather than desperately rush into eternal ruin ? 

Having made these passing remarks, I shall proceed, 
1st. To adduce my plain view; 2d. The judgment of cele- 
brated papal divines; 3d. The testimony of the apostles, 
and of the ancient fathers, from their days nearly up to the 
sixth century, and of other eminent doctors from thence to 
the sixteenth century ; and then close with some observa 
tions. 

Transubstantia.tion is, I maintain, incapable of being 
proved, 1st. By sense or reason ; 2d. By Scripture; 3d. By 



1^0 TRANSUBSTAXTIATION 

miracles; 4th. By antiquity; 5th. Or hy any testimony 
whatever, celestial or terrestrial. Hence, it is an impossi- 
bility, a false doctrine accursed of God. 

If the Almighty, the God of truth and love, cannot work 
either moral or natural impossibilities or contradictions, and 
therefore, cannot deceive ; if the revelation he hath given 
us through the sacred writers be of infallible inspiration , 
if the character of Christ our Saviour be peculiar to himself 
and infallibly true ; if the sacrifice of Christ on the cross be 
an all-perfect atonement ; and if his body now glorified, bo 
impassible and immutable, so that nothing can be taken 
from it or added to it forever: I say, if all this be undoubted 
truth, whatsoever contradicts it must undoubtedly be false- 
hood. 

I. Suppose then for a moment, that an apostle or an angel 
should descend from heaven, and pronounce that the conse- 
crated bread and wine, the host, is true Christ, the real Son 
of Mary ; would not an inquiry instandy arise. Is the holy 
virgin indeed the mother of this host 9'^ Has it been now 
really born of her, though she is in heaven and has had no 
child these eighteen hundred and twenty years past? Has 
'it been an infant? and circumcised ? and preached, and died 
on a cross ? &c. If not, if it never was born, nor stirred, 
nor preached, nor ascended to heaven, how then can it be 

* I once had a conversation at Mr. Hardy's, in the county of Galway, 
with the Kev. Mr. L , P. Priest, on ~ this and other such sub- 
jects ; I asked him this question, Do you admit it is an acknowledged 
truth, that John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth 1 "I do, cer- 
tainly." Now, were the whole world, after granting this, to swear on 
the Gospels, that he was the real, natural son of the virgin Mary, would 
you believe them ? "Believe them? no! by no means!" Why, sir] 
"Because he was 720^ born of her, he could not be her real son." True, 
said I, any thing not born of her could not be her real son ,- and to affirm 
it could, would be falsehood. But a Christ, confessed by your council to 
be made of bread and wine, and therefore not born of Mary, could not 
be her real son ,- consequently, should the whole world and all the coun- 
cils that ever existed swear that it was made her son, it would be a pal- 
pable untruth. But it is said, "All things are possible to God." But is 
it possible for him to lie, or work self-contradictions] "No," said he, 
" he could not make two hills without a valley," Sec. So then, this 
priest would not believe the oath of all mankind, that a man not born of 
a woman could be her real son, and yet he could believe that the eucha- 
rist is the real son of Mary, though not born of her, because his council 
has so decreed it, and sworn him so to believe ! ! ! 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 191 

Christ? Impossible. Hence this doctrine, 1st. Contradicts 
matter of fact and Scripture, and therefore is subversive of 
Christianity; 2d. As it ascribes to Christ a power to make 
himself, which is a contradiction, it involves blasphemy; 
3d. AVhen it is granted that he is now impassible and im- 
mutable ; yet that this doctrine saith he is mutable, or that 
bread can now be changed into his body, it teacheth what 
is falsehood ;* 4th. When it affirms, that things which are 
different from each other, such as the man Christ and a 
wafer, are not different from each other, but are the same ; 
That he who is as large as a man in heaven, is as small on 
earth as the least crumb of bread or drop of wine; and that 
though he fills heaven with his glory, "/ie may at the same 
time be eaten by priests, and vomited, and taken out of the 
vomit, and be reverently sivallowed by them again; or may 
be carried away by the ivind and lost; or be eaten by rats, 
mice, or worms, which for this must be caught and burnt.'''' 
Aquinas, Sum. qu. 80, art. 3. Missal de defect, p. 53 — 57. 
Lastly, that the senses must contradict each other, four to 
one : for the seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling, constantly 
declare, the Aos^ is bread ; but the hearing,! when infatuated 
by the priest and this doctrine, must deny that it is bread.j: 
Hpnce, either the senses, which are God's gift, must not be 
credited, and all certainty must be at an end, or the pope and 
this doctrine must be cast off. For if contradictions which 
necessarily subvert all order and Christianity, should not, 
cannot be believed, then should no man whatever, preach- 
ing this doctrine, be for an instant believed. 

Further, supposing some of the disciples had believed in 
transubstantiation, and had before our Lord's resnirection 
been teaching it to Thomas and those other disciples, to 

* Magher, I think it is, tells us, " Two or three priests, of whom he 
was one, walked on a certain day together, and conversed on this sub- 
ject ; one said, ' If all the bread which has been consecrated since the 
days of Christ has been really changed into his body, it must by this 
time be as large as a mountain I' Another said, ' Surely, the Trent fa- 
thers must have been mistaken.' " 

•j- "We may," saith Challoner, Cath. Chris, p. 48, " saf li/ trust the 
sense of hearing, under the authority of the church, &c., that what ap 
pears (to the other senses) to be bread and wine, is indeed the body and 
blood of Christ." 

i Saith the prophet, The nations have drunken of the wine [ductrinr] 
of Babylon ,- therefure the nations are mad. Jer. li. 7, 



192 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

whom our Lord after he had risen said, " Why are ye 
troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Be- 
hold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." Luke xxiv. 
38, 39. " Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my 
hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side ; 
and be no more faithless, but believing." John xx. 27. 
After they had this full evidence to their senses, from our 
Lord himself, that his natural body had undergone no 
change, but was still flesh, bones, &c., as before his death, 
how could they have believed this doctrine ? for, by the 
same evidence on which they believed him that he was a 
man and not a spirit, by the very same they must have be- 
lieved what they had received at the last supper was no 
other thing than bread and wine, and therefore that transub- 
stantiation could not be true. For that very argument by 
which our Saviour proved to them the reality of his body 
after his resurrection, doth as strongly prove the reality of 
bread and wine after consecration. But our Saviour's argu- 
ment was infallibly true, and therefore the doctrine of tran- 
substantiation is undoubtedly false. 

2. The sacred writers testify, that from the foundation of 
the world there has not been any true or proper sacrifice 
for sin till Christ died on the cross. Then it follows, that 
any sacrifice which hath ever appeared till that of the cross 
could not be real ox proper, but typical or figurative only. 
But the sacrament which Christ gave at his last supper was 
before his apprehension, condemnation, or crucifixion, hence 
it could not be in anywise more than a figurative sacrifice, 
and therefore this doctrine is impossible. 

Admitting it possible that the very words of the councils 
ot Lateran and Trent, which decree transubstantiation, 
could be found in the Scripture, would not that very Scrip- 
ture, as formerly noticed, testify of a Christ not bearing the 
aforesaid Scripture characters, and be a contradiction to the 
rest of the Scripture, and therefore must in its consequences, 
according to proposition 7, subvert Christianity root and 
branch? Again, by what clearer evidence or stronger argu- 
^ ments could any man prove such words were in the Bible, 
Uhan I could prove to him that the bread and wine after con- 
secration, which I see and feel, are bread and wine still ? 
He could, to prove that these words are in the Bible, but 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 193 

appeal to my eyes only; but I could appeal, not to his eyes 
only, but to all his senses, that after consecration the bread, 
nor voice nor breath being heard therein, is bread still, and 
not a living man. Then my proof must preponderate, and 
his doctrine be therefore rejected as false and impossible. 

Should I proceed no farther, but stop here, is not this 
view of this doctrine so plain and easy, and these arguments 
so simple and conclusive, that the body which our Lord 
gave at the last supper must doubtless have been not his 
real body? but figurative only, and that to deny this 
would be the total subversion of truth and Christianity? 

3. Granting even miracles, which were the confirmation 
of the religion of Moses and of Christ our Lord, were 
wrought in proof of transubstantiation, what would be the 
result? The instant overthrow of Christianity, as in the 
former cases, would follow; for anything whatever that 
would prove this doctrine true, must prove Christ and tlie 
Scriptures false. But, as what I would say is so much 
be-tter expressed by Archbishop Tillotson, I shall give you 
his own words nearly. — "I am," saith he, "very well 
assured of the grounds of religion in general, and of the 
Christian religion in particular ; and yet I cannot see that 
the foundation of any revealed religion is strong enough to 
bear the weight of so many and so great absurdities as this 
doctrine o{ transubstantiation would load it witha]. And 
to make this evident, I shall not insist on those gross con- 
tradictions of the same (identical, numerical) body being in 
so many several places at once ; of our liOrd's giving him- 
self away with his own hands to every one of his disciples, 
to eat him, and then to drink him, and still keeping himself 
to himself; nay, and of eating himself, and also drinking 
himself, with many more of the like nature. But to show 
the absurdity of this doctrine, I shall only ask a few ques- 
tions." I pass on to his third. 

"Whether it be reasonable to imagine that God should 
make that a part of the Christian religion which shakes the 
main external evidence and confirmation of the whole, I 
mean the miracles which were wrought by our Saviour and 
his apostles, the assurance whereof did at first depend upon 
the certainty of sense. For if the senses of those who saw 
them were or could be deceived, then there might have 
been no miracles wrought, and consequently it mav be 
17 



194 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

justly doubted, whether that kind of confirmation which 
God hath given to the Christian religion would be strong 
enough to prove it ; for, supposing transubstantiation to 
have been part of it, every man would have had as great 
evidence that it was false as that the Christian religion is 
true. 

" Of all doctrines in the world, this of transubstantiation 
is peculiarly incapable of being proved by a miracle. For 
if a miracle were wrought for the proof of it, the very same 
assurance that any one could have of the truth of the mira- 
cle, he hath of the falsehood of this doctrine : that is, the 
clear evidence of his senses. For that there is a miracle 
wrought to prove that what he sees in the sacrament is not 
bread, but the body of Christ, there is only the evidence of 
sense, and there is the same evidence to prove that what he 
sees in the sacrament is not the body of Christ, but bread. 
So that here would arise a new controversy, whether a man 
should rather believe his senses giving testimony against 
the doctrine of transubstantiation, or bearing witness to a 
miracle wrought to confirm that doctrine ; there being the 
very same evidence against the truth of the doctrine which 
there is for the truth of the miracle. And then the argu- 
ment for the doctrine and the objection against it would 
balance one another, and consequently transubstantiation 
is not to be proved by miracles, because that would be to 
prove to a man by something that he sees that he doth not 
see what he sees. And if there were no other evidence that 
transubstantiation is no part of tlie Christian religion, this 
would be sufficient, that what proves the one doth as much 
overthrow the other; and that miracles which are certainly 
the best and highest external proof of Christianity, are the 
worst proof in the world of transubstantiation, unless a man 
can renounce his senses at the same time that he relies upon 
them, for a man cannot believe a miracle without relying 
on his senses, nor transubstantiation without renouncing 
them. So that never were any two things so ill coupled 
together as the doctrine of Christianity and of transubstantia- 
tion, because they draw several ways, and are ready to 
strangle one another ; for the main external evidence of 
the doctrine of Christ, which is miracles, is resolved into 
the certainty of sense, but this evidence is clear, and point 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 195 

blank against transubstantialion." This reasoning who can 
resist? Tillotson on Transubstantialion. 

Objection. — Our Lord and Redeemer, who cannot lie, 
said, " Verily, verily, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 
vi. 53. And at his last supper with his disciples, " Take 
eat, this is my body;" surely all this must be no meta- 
phor, but reality. Hence, he must have converted the 
bread really into his body, and the wine into his blood. 
And Protestants themselves do confess, " They receive the 
body and blood of Christ verily and indeed in the Lord's 
supper." What, then, can be plainer than that it is the real 
body of Christ which is meant? 

Answer. — 1. That the bread and wine did, in some sense, 
become his body, none of us deny; but that it became his 
natiixal body, as it involves a self-contradiction, we all 
must deny, or give up Christianity as a falsehood ! When 
it is considered that the Scriptures, as did also the ancient 
fathers, take the body of Christ in five several senses, the 
difficulty at once ceases, namely, 1. His natural body born 
of his mother; 2. His mystical body, or church; 3. His 
glorified and impassible body; 4. His sacramental or figu- 
rative body; and, 5. His celestial body: I say this solves 
the difficulty, and leads us to discover what that body was 
which he gave to his disciples. It could not have been his 
natural body, for then it would follow that he eat himself 
and drank himself, and that each of his disciples did so 
likewise, and yet that neither did so, for he remained un- 
eaten; and again, that his human body was then made, and 
of course did never exist before, whereas it had existed for 
many years before: all which, involving many self-contra- 
dictions or falsehoods, would subvert Christianity. 2. It 
was not his mystical body, the church, (Eph. i. 23,) for to 
eat his church was impossible. 3. It was not his glorified 
body, for this was also impossible, because his body then 
was not spiritual and impassible, but had flesh and bones, 
which our Lord and St. Paul affirm a spirit hath not.* 
4. Nor was it that body that is eaten only by the mind ; 
*'that living bread which came down from heaven;! whicli 
is eaten by the ears — by faith only ; and as it nourishes the 

• Luke xxiv. 39. 1 Cor. jfv. 40—45. -j- John vi. 48—51. 



196 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

soul, could not consist of matter, as the fathers say ; but, 
5. it was his commemorative, sacramental, or figurative 
body, of which himself eat, he gave them. This it must 
have been, since to suppose any of the others would involve 
self-contradiction, and therefore instant infidelity ! This 
solution is plain and easy ; and as it involves no contradic- 
tion or opposition to reason and Scripture, it must be true, 
and to this sense your best writers as well as all antiquity 
agree, as shall presentl}'- appear. This they must have 
done, or entangled themselves in endless contradictions and 
become infidels ! 

2. When our Lord called himself " a rock, a morning 
star, a door, a true vine, a shepherd," &c., though he spake 
truly, yet it was not literally; or when he calls Herod a 
fox, .John the Baptist Elias, the disciples his mother, St. 
John her son, &c., it was not strictly so, for he did not 
really convert the disciples into his mother, nor his mother 
into St. John's mother, nor Herod into a fox, &c. ; nor will 
it be said when he called the sacramental cup the new testa- 
jnent, that he indeed converted it into a testament : if not, 
why is it insisted that he converted the sacramental bread 
into his real, natural body? seeing this sense, as it necessarily 
is subversive of Christ's gospel and kingdom, is conclusively 
and deeply antichristian. 

To this figurative manner of speaking, of even the sacra- 
ments, were the Jews well accustomed, it being usual in 
the Hebrew language, (in which it seems is no word to ex- 
press signify,) to say things are that which they only sig- 
nify; so the sacrament of circumcision is called the cove- 
nant, though only the token of it. Gen. xvii. 4 ; the paschal 
lamb the Lord's passover, though only the sign of it, Exod. 
xii. 11 — 13; Christ is called "the Lamb of God, and our 
Passover," 1 Cor. v. 7, because he was represented by 
these things ; and after the same usage he calls the cup " the 
new testament in my blood shed for you." Luke xxii. 30. 
Here ]3 figure upon figure: the cup for the wine, the wine 
for the new testament ; but neither cup nor wine is pro- 
perly the new testament, nor yet our Saviour's blood 
either, but the seal of it only. 

But as our Lord's blood was the seal of the new testa- 
ment, and also of all the promises and benefits contained in 
it, so was the wine a sign of his blood to l)e shed ; and it 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 197 

was given as such to tlie disciples, and as a seal of that cove- 
nant, afterwards confirmed by his blood when it was really 
shed. But his own natural blood was not then shed, unless 
it will be madly affirmed that it was shed before it was 
shed, or that he had suffered. Hence this cup or wine, 
being a sign which represented the blood to be shed, got 
the name of the thing it signified. Again, Christ gave his 
body to his disciples as broken, but this being before his 
death, it was really whole nd unbroken ; hence it was the 
bread, not his natural body, which was broken, and given 
as a symbol of his body, which was to be broken. So tluU 
it was broken bread which he really gave, and not his natu- 
ral body. But the bread was a sign of his body, and there- 
fore called his body, because it signified it. Hence these 
words must necessarily be taken figuratively. 

But if it be still insisted the eucharistical bread and wine 
are changed into the very substance of the body and blood 
of Christ, when was it done ? Was it before the words 
" This is my body" were pronounced ? or in them ? or 
after them ? If not till after, then to say " This is my real 
body," must have been a falsehood : for if it was not done 
before these words, "This is my body," were pronounced, 
then a thing is pronounced to be what it is not, which all 
must see is a false proposition. But take it figuratively, 
and the difficulty ceases. 

The learned Salmeron saw this so clearly, that in torn. 9, 
tract. 15, he saith, on "This is my body," — "Certainly 
these words do not signify that any conversion is made by 
the force of the words ;" and he insists " they are declara- 
tive only of what is, and not effective of that which is not:" 
and will have it that it was done by some other words. 
And (in pp. 98, 99,) affirms, " That in the latter part of the 
institution, » This cup is the new testament in my blood,' 
there is a twofold figure. 1. The cup is put for the wine 
contained therein; 2. That which is contained in it is called 
the covenant, or testament, because it is the symbol or sign 
of it."* And in page 100, " The blood is called the new 
testament, as the circumcision is called the covenant, be- 

* Subest in his verbis duplex metonoyrnia ; prima, qua continens po- 

nitur pro contento, i. e. calix pro vina, altera est qua contentutn in po- 

culo, id est sanguis sub specie vini, fcsdus vel testamentum dicitur 

novum, cum sit ejus symbolum, &c. Tom. 9, tract. 15, pp. 98, 99, 100. 

17* 



1 93 TR ANSUBSTAXTIATIOX 

cauSe it represents or is 2. figure of that covenant." What 
than this can be more conclusive ? 

Aquinas, (on 1 Cor. xi.) saith, "By that which is con- 
tained in this cup is made a comn^emoration of the New 
Testament, vrhich is confirmed by Chrisfs blood.'*^ 

Cardinal Alliaco, (in 4 Sent. q. 6, art. 2,) " It appears 
that this doctrine, which doth teach that the substance of 
bread remains after consecration, is possible ; nor is it re- 
pugnant to reason or the authority of the Scripture, but is 
indeed more easy and free from absurdity than any otlier."* 

Scotus, the subtile doctor, in Dist. 11, q. 3, saith, "There 
is no place to be found in the Scripture that may compel a 
man to believe the transubstantiation, had not the church so 
determined it." And Cardinal Bellarmine says, "That 
which Dr. Scotus saith is not altogether improbable ; for, 
though the scripture we have alleged seem to us so plain 
that it may compel a man, not perverse, yet whether it be 
so may be justly doubted, seeing the most learned and most 
acute men, such especially as Scotus, are of a contrary 
judgment."! 

Cardinal Cajetan (in his notes on Aquinas) writes, "The 
other point which the gospel hath not expounded expressly, 
that is, the conversion of bread into the body of Christ, we 
have received from the church. Tiiat conversion is not 
found explicidy in the gospel." Again, " There appears 
nothing in the gospel to compel any man to understand 
these words. This is my body, in a proper sense. Nay, that 
presence which our church holdeth cannot be demonstrated, 
unless the declaration of the church had been added."! 

* Patet quod ille modus est possibilis, nee repugnat rationi, nee auc- 
toritati Biblis, imo est focilior ad intelligenduin et rationabilior quam 
aliquis aliorum. 

I Scotus dicit non extare locum ullum scrinturae tarn expressum, ut 
sine declaratione ecclesisB, evidenter cogat transubstantionera admittere, 
et id non est omnino iraprobabile, &c. L. 3, c. 33, de Eucharist. 

t Alterum quod evaiigeliura non explicavit expresse, ab ecclesia ac- 
cepimus, scil. conversionem panis in corpus Christi non explicate habe- 
lur in evangelio. Ibid. — Xon apparet ex evangelic coactivum aliquod 
ad intelligendum hfec verba proprie, nempe, Hoc est corpus meoj ; 
imo prseseiitia ilia in sacramento, quam tenet (Roinaua) ecclesia, ex his 
verbis Christi, non potest demonstrari, nisi etiam accessirit (Romanse) 
ecclesiae deciaratio. Cajet. in Thom. p. 3, q. 75, art. 1. Ibid. q. 45, 
arL 14. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 199 

«♦ Cardinal Perron," says Drelincourt, " being asked by 
some of his friends, in his last sickness, what he thought 
of transubstantiation, he answered, ' It is a monster.' They 
asked, ' Why then had he written so largely and learnedly 
upon it?' He replied, that ' he had done the utmost which 
his wit and parts had enabled him, to colour over this 
ABUSE, and render it plausible, like those who employ all 
their force to defend an ill cause.' "* 

Thus, these cardinals confess, the church (in the face of 
the divine anathema) obliges them to a doctrine which is 
not found in the gospel, and therefore to a "new doctrine — 
a heresy !" Notable confession ! 

Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, (Contr. Captiv. Babylon, 
c. 10, n. 2,) openly declares, " That there is not one word 
in the institution, from whence the true presence of the flesh 
and blood of Christ, in our mass, can be proved." 

VasqueZjt Ocham,:}: Alphonsus de Castro, || Erasmus, § 
Durand,^ Taperus,** Gabriel Biel,tt Melchior Canus,|^ 
Cardinal Contarenus,|||| &c., are of this judgment. 

Yet, Dr. Challoner employs twenty-eight pages of ^^Cath. 
Christian,''^ and seven of these on John vi., to prove the 
corporal presence. How vain is his labour 1 Our Lord 
saith, (ver. 32, 33,) " My Father giveth you the true bread 
from heaven : for the bread of God is he which cometh 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 35. 1 
am the bread of life : he that cometh to me shall never 
hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. 
51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven ; 
if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever : and the 
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the 
life of the world. 52. The Jews, therefore, strove among 
themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to 
eat? 53. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you. 54. Whoso eateth my 
flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will 

* Response a lettres de Monseign. de Prince Ernest, aux Cinq. Minis- 
Ires de Paris. Geneve, 1G64. 

f Part 3, Disp. 180. t Sent. 4, q. 5, «fec. || De Hffires, 1. 8 

i In Ep. 1 Cor. c. 7. *{ \n Sent. 1. 4, dist. 1 1 , q. 1 . 

*• Art. Lov. 1.3. jf In Can. Mis. Lect. 43. 

H Loc. Theol. I. 3, c. 3. 1||1 De Sacram. 1. 2, c. 3. 



200 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

raise him up at the last day: 55. For my flesh is meat in- 
deed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56. He that eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in 
him. 62. What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend 
up to heaven, where he was before. 63. It is the spirit 

THAT QUICKENETH, THE FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING ; the 

words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are 
life." 

From these words of our Lord we learn, 1st. That this 
living bread, (or meat, or eternal life, by a figure called 
^esh and blood, because procured by his sacrifice on the 
cross,) came down from heaven. But his natural body was 
born on earth, and the sacrament was made of earthly mat- 
ter, therefore, that living bread could not be the sacrament; 
2. Whosoever eateth this bread hath eternal life— shall live 
forever; but many eat the sacrament who are wicked and 
perish : therefore, that bread is not the sacrament. 3. Who- 
soever eateth not this living bread, this ^esh and blood, 
shall eternally perish. But it will not be supported, that all 
who have not receiv^ed the sacrament from the time these 
words were spoken till the last supper, in a year after, were 
damned: for then, not only all children, heathens, &c., but 
also John the Baptist, and all the pious Jews who died in 
that interval, must have been damned. Therefore, by that 
flesh and blood, or living bread, was meant that grace 
without which none can be saved, and not the sacrament. 
Hence, that flesh and blood are not the sacrament. 4. To 
come to Christ, to believe on him, is to eat and drink him, or 
his flesh and blood, and have our hunger and thirst appeased 
forever ; but this is done by faith, by hearing, by the mind, 
and not by the mouth of the body, as St. Austin (Tract 25) 
saith, ^'■Quare paras dentes et ventrem, crede et mandu- 
casti.^^ " Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and thy belly? 
believe, and thou hast eaten." And 27, ^^ Intelligetis quod 
gratia ejus non consumitur morsibus.^^ " Ye shall know 
that his grace is not eaten by mouthfuls." Ibid. " Hoc 
ergo totum," &c. " While many do eat and drink the 
sacraments temporally, who in the end shall have eternal 
torments, let us eat and drink unto the participation of the 
spirit, that we may abide in the Lord's body as members." 
Therefore, it is not the material sacrament, thus received, 
which is here meant, but it is that "■iniuard and spiritual 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 201 

grace which is a death unto sin, and a new birth unto 
righteousness,'''' as saith the church catechism ; and which 
nourishes and comforts the soul. 5. To drink the blood of 
Christ before it was shed was impossible ; but it was not 
then, nor at the sacrament, shed; therefore, to drink it then, 
or at the sacrament, was impossible. 6. '''•The flesh profit- 
eth nothing^'' to give life, (though to atone it doth;) but 
"27 is the Spirit that quickeneth: the words which I have 
spoken to you are spirit and life.'''' It is the Spirit, given 
us because of the atoning sacrifice, which alone works in us 
faith to lay hold on the words of promise, and imparteth 
unto us eternal life. 7. If Christ cannot dwell in us, ex- 
cept we receive or eat him literally, it must follow, that to 
make us dwell in him, he must also eat us literally. How 
absurd is this doctrine ! Hence it is plain, that in the sixth 
of John our Lord speaks not of eating the sacrament, but of 
a spiritual manducation or eating only, that is, of grace re- 
ceived by faith. That this is so, is confessed by learned 
popes and others, and also by the ancient fathers, as shall 
now appear. 

The council of Trent* teacheth three several ways of 
taking this sacrament: 1. Sacramentally only, as do sin- 
ners. 2. Spiritually only; some thus eating that heavenly 
bread, that divine grace, by a living faith working by love, 
not orally, but inwardly in desire, /ee/ its fruit and benefit. 
3. Sacramentally and spiritually; that is, by the mouth, 
and by the mind by faith. This is worthy of notice, that 
the council declares, that sinners partake of the sacrament 
only, but not of Christ ! Is not this a plain admission that 
Christ's body is not in the eucharist? Again, "true be- 
lievers receive Christ 3.nd feel the fruit of his grace without 
receiving the sacrament." Hence, as such receive Christ's 
spirit and grace, though not the eucharist, what then is the 
use of transubstantiation ? and being useless, it cannot be 
of God. 

* Quoad usum, autem recte et sapienter Patres nostri tres rafiones 
hoc sanctum sacramentum accipiendi distinxerunt. Quosdam enim 
docuerunt sacramentaliter dumtaxat id sumere, ut peccatores ,- alios tan- 
lum spiritualiter ; illos nimirum, qui vote propositum ilium ccelestem 
panem edentes fide viva, quas per dilectionein operatur, fructum ejus et 
utilitatem sentiunt; tertios porro sacramentaliter, simul et spiritualiter.— 
Seas. xiii. cap. 8. 



202 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

2. Hear Pope Innocent III. (c. 14, 1. 4,) of the mysteries 
of the mass, " The Lord saying, except ye eat of the flesh 
of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in 
you, speaketh of the spiritual manducation : in this man- 
ner the good only do eat the body of Christ." And in book 
4, c. 36, " The form of bread comprehendeth the one and 
the other flesh of Christ, to wit, the true and the mystical." 
What twofold flesh is this, except the sign and the sub- 
stance, the sacrament and the grace, called flesh, because 
procured by Christ's flesh on the cross ? 

3. Pope Pius II. saith, " The sense of the gospel of 
John is not such as you ascribe unto it, for there it is not 
commanded to drink at the sacrament, but a manner of spi- 
ritual drinking is taught. The Lord, when he saith, ' It 
is the spirit which quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing,' 
by these words declareth, in that place, the secret mysteries 
of the spiritual drink and not of the carnal. And again, 
' The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they 
are life ;' wilt thou know openly, the evangelist speaketh 
of the spiritual manducation, which is made by faith, (not 
by the mouth.) Consider the Lord's words, He that eateth 
and drinketh, are words of the present tense and not of the 
future ; at that very instant, therefore, (more than a year 
before the last supper,) there were some that did eat him 
and drink him!" Again, "Ye must not wonder at some 
doctors, speaking of the sacramental communion, and coun- 
selling the people to it, who employ St. John's words; yet, 
it doth not on this account follow, that such is the true and 
proper meaning of this place."* 

4. Saith Gabriel Biel, in Lesson 38, Can.- Miss. " The 
doctors hold with a common consent, that in the 6th of 
John, no mention is made but of the spiritual manduca- 
tion." 

5. Stapleton saith, " St. John writes nothing of the 
eucharistic supper, because the other three evangelists had 
fully written of it before. "t 

6. Saith St. Bernard, " The body of Christ is in a 



* Pius II. Epist. 130, ad Cardinalem Carvialem. 

j- " Johannes de eucharistica coena nihil scribit, eo quod ceteri tres 
evangelistse ante eum, earn plene descripsissent." In promp. Cath. Ser 
1. Hebd. sanct. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 203 

mystery the food of the mind, not of the belly: hence, it is 
not eaten corporally.''''^ 

With all these testimonies before them, how insincere, or 
how ignorant and foolish are they who quote St. John, to 
prove the corporal presence in the eucharist. These papal 
divines prove ^Hliat eating Chrisfs flesh'''' — means, '■'■re- 
ceiving his grace by faith.'''' 

LET us NOW HEAR THE FATHERS. 

1. Irenaeus, on the words, "the flesh profiteth nothing," 
saith, "the flesh profiteth nothing to vivify, it is the spirit 
that vivifieth. The Word was made flesh, and by conse- 
quence, to have life, it must be desired and devoured by the 
ear, ruminated by the understanding, and digested by 
faith.''] 

2. Clemens Alexandrinus (an. 207) writes, " The Lord 
saying, eat my flesh and drink my blood, propoundeth by 
an allegory the evidence of faith, and the drink of the pro- 
mise.''X " He (Christ) calls the Holy Spirit flesh, by 
allegory; for the flesh was created by Him, and the blood 
signifies the TVord.''^ — Again, " There are two sorts of 
blood of Christ ; the one his carnal blood, by which (as an 
atonement) we are saved from corruption ; tffe other is his 
spiritual, to wit, that by which we are anointed ; and that 
is, to drink the blood of Jesus — to be partakers of the Lord's 
incorruption."|| 

3. St. Hierome in Epist. ad Ephes. Can. .^^ Dupliciter,'' 
" Christ's flesh is understood in two senses ; either that 
spiritual and divine flesh, of which himself saith. My flesh 
is meat indeed; or else, that flesh that was crucified, and 
that blood which was shed by the spear of the soldier."^ 

* -"Quod Christi corpus in naysterio cibis est mentis et non ventris ; 
proinde corporaliter non manducatur." De Ccena Dom. 

•j- Caro non prodest quicquam, ad vivificandum scilicet ; spiritus est 
qui vivificat. Quia et sermo caro erat factus, proinde in causam vita 
appetendus, et devorandus auditu, et ruminandus intellectu, et Jide 
digestendus. Iren. de Resurrec. Cam. cap. 37. 

i <l>u.yiTi [x^v Tug augKcic UTrm, ku.i TruT^i //ou too duy.'X ivct^yi; t«? m<rTices 
Kxt T«? eTTxyyiXtais tov TTortixov AAKnyo^oiv. 

§ 2^KX »/u.iv Tcu UviUjuct Tcu ayiov uhXiiycgit, ^C. 

II AtTTCtV Ctl/U-d TCU Ku^lCU TO /UiV yug iO-TlV clVrCV a-U^KIKCV v!i T« <f>3"0§:t? \i\U* 

r^ajMsS-A, TO S'i 7rviUju.ATtx.c1v, <^c. De Pedag. lib. 2, cap. 6. 
^ Duplicitcr intelligitur caro Christi, vel spiritualis ilia atque divina 



204 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

And on Psalm 44, " When the Lord saith, ' He that eateth 
not my flesh,' &c., ttiough that may be imderstood in mys- 
tery, yet to speak more truly, the word of heavenly doctrine 
of the Scriptures is the body of Christ and his blood."* 
Again, " His body and blood is poured into our ears."t 
A.nd in Distinct. Can. de Hac. on Lev. the same father is 
alleged in these Avords, " It is indeed lawful to eat of this 
host, which is made admirably in remembrance of Christ; 
but it is not lawful in itself for any one to eat of that which 
he offered on the altar of the cross. "J 

4. Venerable Bede, out of Augustine, "/;i sacramento,''^ 
&c. " Li the sacrament it is so done; and the faithful 
know how they eat the Jiesh of Christ ; every one receiveth 
his part. ^^ 

5. St. Augustine, (Ser. ad Infantes apud Bedam,) *^Qui 
accipit,^^ &c. '■''Non dubitandum,^^ &c. " No man ought to 
doubt that every one is then made partaker of the Lord^s 
body and blood, when in baptism he is made a member of 
Christ, and that he is no stranger from that bread and cup, 
although before he eat and drink of them he depart out of 
the world : for he is not deprived of the participation and 
benefit of that sacrament, when he hath found the same 
thing which the sacrament doth signify." 

Thus do all these fathers teach us, as do indeed those 
papal doctors themselves, that the term "flesh and blood of 
Christ," in John vi., and " body and blood of Christ," Matt. 
&c,, have two or more several meanings ; one, is God's 
word eaten by the ears, by faith ; another is the Holy Spirit 
received into the heart : each is called Jlesh and blood, be- 
cause given us on account of Christ crucified: another is 
the eucharist, to be eaten in commemoration of, and to lift 
the soul up to Christ's body broken on the cross for us, and 
therefore is called, " his body and blood," but not properly 

de qua ipse ait. Caro mea vere est cibus ; vel caro quje crucifixa et 
sanguis qui militis effusus est per lanceam. 

* Quando dicit, Qui non manducaverit et biberit sanguinem meum, 
licet in mysterio possit intelligi, tamen verum corpus Christi et sanguis 
ejus strmo scripturarum est. 

•j- Corpus et sanguis ejus in auribus nostris funditur. 

i " De hac quidem hostia qus in commemorationem mirabiliter fit, 
edere licet. De ilia vero quam Christus in ara crucis obtulit, secundum 
se, nuUi edere licet." Dist. Can. de hac in licvit. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 205 

SO, any of ihem ; and to this agree the three ways of the 
Trent council ! Yet by making the eucharist, nevertheless, 
to be the proper body and blood of Christ, she contradicts 
herself and subverts truth. 

From all which it is plain, what is found in the Church 
Catechism concerning " the body and blood of Christ, being 
verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the 
Lord's supper," meaneth, with all these fathers and doc- 
tors, no more than receiving there, the Holy Spirit and 
grace of the Lord, which his broken body and shed blood 
hath purchased for us, not by the corporal mouth, but by 
the mind by faith, as saith St. Bernard ; and this, not only 
at the sacrament of the eucharist, but also by prayer, hear- 
ing the gospel, meditation, and in every other means of 
grace. For a confirmation of this, see Bishop Sharp's Ser- 
mons on popery, and many other Protestant writings. 
Hence, therein is no more ground for transubstantiation, 
than in the 6th of John, which hath the like expressions 
with this catechism, but is confessed to mean nothing of the 
sort; and hence shame should cover the faces of those 
advocates of error. 

THE MASS AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION ! ! 

In the canon, " hoc est," of the mass, are these words 
still used after the adoration of the ho*5t : "Wherefore, we 
thy servants and holy people, O Lord ! mindful of the 
blessed passion, resurrection, and ascension, of this same 
Christ, thy son, our Lord, offer unto thy excellent Majesty, 
of thy gifts and presents, a pure host, upon which things 
condescend to look propitiously, and receive. them gracious- 
ly, even as thou didst the presents of thy child Abel, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ."* 

• Unde et memores Domine, nos servi tui, sed et plebs tua sancta, 
ejusdem Christi Filii tui Domini nostri tarn beatse passionis nee non et 
ab inferis resurrectionis, sed et in ccelos gloriosse ascensionis, offer! m us 
praeclarae Majestati tuse de tuis donis ac datis, hostiam puram, hostiam 
sanctam, hostiam immaculatam. — Supra quae propitio et sereno vultu 
respicere digneris, et accepta habere, sicuti accepta habere dignatus es 
munera pueri tui justi Abel, et sacrificium patriarchse nostrae Abrahae. — 
Suppliciter te rogamus omnipotens Deus, jube hsec perferri per manus 
angeli tui in sublime altare tuum in conspectu divinaB Majestatis tuse, 
per eundi^m Christum Dominum nostrum. — Per quem ha;c omnia, 
Domine, semper bona creas, sanctificas, vivificas, benedicis, et prajstas 
18 



206 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

From which I argue first, if the host be really Christy no 
sense can be made of this prayer! For, 1st, The host, or 
Christ, is called gifts and presents! 2d, It is said to have 
suffered, risen from the dead and ascended into heaven! 
and, 3d, Is offered to God, with prayer that he would vouch- 
safe to look upon these things (this host, or Christ) propi- 
tiously, as upon Abel's beast! &c. That is, they pray God 
for Christ's sake, to look upon Christ propitiously, as upon 
a beast! If this prayer refer to the bread and wine only, 
as a divinely appointed symbol of Christ, as was Abel's slain 
lamb, it is good ; but if to Christ, it is utter blasphemy ! 
Hence, it is plainly against transubstantiation. 

2. The priest, looking upon the consecrated host and 
chalice, saitli, "God, by our Lord Jesus Christ, creates al- 
ways for us these good things, sanctifies and vivifies them," 
&c. Can any man not mad, call these good things, — the 
host and cup, Christ? Doth God, by Christ, create and 
vivify Christ always? surely not!! The. mass, therefore, 
saying that God " creates and vivifies these things {the host) 
by Christ," proves incontestibly that when this prayer was 
made, the host was not believed to be Christ, but sacra- 
mental bread and wine only. 

3. He blessed the bread and gave it to his disciples, say- 
ing, " Eat OF IT, all of you ;" " drink of the cup, all of you ;" 
that is, "let each one take his part." What! his part of 
Christ's body and blood? who will say this? if none will, 
surely then it must be his part of the sacrament. This is 
another proof from the canon of the mass, against transub- 
stantiation. 

4. The Trent council declares "This sacred canon to be 
most pure, and very ancient, even as the times of St. Am- 
brose and St. Augustine, (fourteen hundred years ago,) and 
that he who shall say it contains any errors is accursed."* 

nobis, &c. Deditque discipulis suis, dicens, accipite et manducate ex hoc 
omnes. — Bibite ex eo calice omnes. Missale Can. Missse, p. 211 — 215. 
Edit. Dublin, 1814. 

* Et cum sancta sancte administrari conveniat, sitque hoc omnium 
sanctissimum sacrificium, ecclesia Catholica ut digne reverenterq. offe- 
reretur ac perciperetur, sacrum canonem multis ante sceculis instituit ab 
omni errore purum, &c. (Ambros. de Sacrara. 1. 4, c. 6. Augustin. ad 
Jan. super illis verbis Pauli cetera cum venero disponam, et serm. de 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 207 

Its doctrine^ which we have just noticed, is truly like that 
of those fathers and times, as just observed. By this canon, 
Abel's sacrificial lamb, and the eucharist, are clearly placed 
on the same footing, as symbols only of Christ's great sa- 
crifice. Should not every priest, (and the people too,) when 
he considers this, feel terrified when he is worshipping the 
host? For, must not the worshipper find himself in this 
dilemma : If the host or wafer, be a symbol only, like Abel's 
animal, (as saith the canon,) it is no more than a creature ! 
but to worship an animal, a creature, is truly shocking, nay, 
is allowed to be damnable! Or, if the host be really Christ, 
which the council swears him to believe it is, then the 
prayer in the canon, which implores God to look upon and 
accept the host, i. e. Christ, as he did Abel's animal, is most 
absurd and blasphemous ; and the council which decreed 
this awful worship, and also the truth of this canon, must 
necessarily be self-contradictory and erroneous, and the very 
opposite to infallible ! ! Hence, if they would escape idolatry 
on the one hand, or blasphemy on the other, they must 
either give up this canon, and the fathers, and the gospel, 
and Christ, and salvation, and heaven ; or abandon transub- 
stantiation, the worship of the host and the council of Trent, 
and all her fabrications together. 

We shall now hear the testimony of the ancient 
fathers, from nearly the apostles' days, concern- 
ing the body and blood of our lord. 

None will deny, that should the very angels of heaven, 
the apostles, or any fathers that ever lived, be found teach- 
ing contrary to Christ and his gospel, they must be had ac- 
cursed. Henc€, when doctors cite any fathers, to support 
any doctrine opposed to the gospel, they either quote them 
falsely, or hold them up as accursed of God! This is a hint 
for Dr. Milner and his confreres. But when they are cited 
Ko as to agree with Scripture, it is plain they are fairly 
quoted. 

Justin Martyr (an. 144) saith, "This nourishment, made 
of bread and wine, we call Eucharist ; by this, our flesh 
and blood, by digestion, are nourished ; and this nourish- 

corp. Christi,) si quis dixerit canonem missae errores continere, (fee, ana- 
thema sit. Con. Trid. sess. 22, cap. 4, can. 6. 



208 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

merit, we have learned, is the Jlesh and blood of Christ."" 
He lived within about 40 or 50 years of St. John's days. 

Irenseus (an. IGO) saith, "By the creature we are nou- 
rished ; but he gives us the creature. The cup, which is a 
creature, and the bread, which is a creature, he confirms to 
us as his own flesh and blood : for when the cup and bread 
receive the word of God, it becomes the eiicharist of the 
body and blood of Christ, by which the substance of our 
flesh is increased and consists."! But no man dare teach 
that Christ's natural body becomes digested and turned into 
our flesh ; hence, what is eaten and becomes our flesh is not 
his proper body, but his commemorative only, eucharistic 
bread, and hence the pope teaches falsely. 

Tertullian, (an. 200,) "The bread which our Saviour 
took and distributed to his disciples, he made his body, say- 
ing. This is tny body ; that is, the figure, of my body. But 
it would not have been the figure of his body, if there had 
not been a true and real body ; for a vacuity, such as a 
phantasm, is not capable of afigure.^^i "Our flesh is fed 
by the body and blood of Christ, that the soul also may be 
nourished of God."§ 

Origen, (an. 220,) "But if Christ, as these Marcionites 
say, ' was without flesh and blood,' of what sort of flesh, of 
what body, and in fine, of what kind of blood was the bread 
and cir'p he ministered, the signs and images ?'^\ Again, 
(on Matt. XV.,) " That food which is sanctified by the word 
of God, and by prayer, as to that of it that is matter, it 

* Hoc alimentum, de pane et vino, a nobis vocatur Eucharistia, per 
hanc alimoniam, sanguis et caro nostra, per mutationera nutriuntur, 
eamque Jesu Christi carnem et sanguinem esse didicimus. Apolog. 2. 
ad Anton. Imp. prope finem. 

■j- Per creaturam nutrimur, creaturam autem ipse nobis praestat. Eum 
calicem, qui est creatura, suum sanguinem, et eum panem qui est crea- 
tura, suum corpus confirmavit ; quando ergo calix et panis recipiunt 
verbum Dei, fit eucharistia sanguinis et corporis Christi, ex quibus au- 
getur et consistit carnis nostrc-e substantia. L'en. lib. 5, c. 21. 

t At Christus accepto pane et distribute discipulis, corpus suum 
ilium fecit, dicendo, Hoc est corpus meum, id est, Jigura corporis 
mei. Figura vero non fuisset, nisi veritatis fuisset corpus. Res enim 
vacua, ut est phantasma Jiguram capere non potest. Tert. cunt. Mur- 
cion. lib. 4, c. 40. 

§ Caro, corpore et sanguine Christi vescitur, ut et anima de Deo sa- 
ginetur de resurrect. Car. cap. 8. Idem. 

!J Quod si Christus, ut obloquuntur isti Marcionistae, carne d^stribu- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 209 

goetb into the belly and is cast out into the draught."* Again, 
" Understand that these things are figures, and therefore 
spiritual, and not carnal : for there is in the gospel a letter 
which kills him who doth not spiritually understand what 
is said ; for, if we take according to the letter what is said, 
' except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood,' this letter 
kills. "t Because, as already proved, the literal sense sub- 
verts Christianity, and by consequence kills the soul. 

St. Cyprian, (an. 250,) in his Epistle to Ccccilius, against 
the Aquarians, thus writeth: " The cup which is offered (to 
the people) in commemoration of Christ, should be offered 
mixed with wine, contrary to the Aquarians' opinion : for 
where the wine is not in the cup, the blood of Christ can- 
not be expressed; because we see that by the wine, the 
blood of Christ is represented, even as in or by the water 
the faithful are understood^X " O^^^ Lord gave at the table 
bread and wine with his own hands : but into the soldiers' 
hands he delivered his body to be wounded, that the things 
signifying and signified might be consecrated by the same 
names. "§ 

St. Athanasius (an. 330) thus saith : '* The Lord distin- 
guished the spirit from the flesh, that we might learn that 
the words he spoke were not carnal, but spiritual: for were 
his (natural) body made the food of the whole world, how 
many men could it be able to suffice 1 But on this account 

tus erat exsanguis, cujusmodi carnis, cujus corporis, et qualis tandem 
sanguinis, signa et imagines panem et poculum ministravit ] Orig. 
Dial. 3. de Hom. Christ, cont. Marc. 

* lile cibus qui sanctificatur per verbum Dei et preces, juxta quod 
habet materiale in ventrem abiit et in secessum ejicitur, Orig. Lib. de 
Anima, p. 319. 

•j- Agnoscite quia figurae sunt, et id ideo tanquam spiritualis, non car- 
nalis. Est enim in evangelio litera, quae occidit eum, qui non spiritu- 
aliter quae dicit ea advertit. Si enim secundum literam sequeris, hoc 
ipsum quod dictum est, '■Nisi manducaveritis carnem meam et biberiiis 
sanguinem meum, occidet haec litera.^ Hom. 7 in Levit. 

4 Ut calix qui commemorationem Christi offertur, mixtus vino offeratur, 
contra sententiam Aquariorum, ubi enim vinum non est in calice, san- 
guis Christi non potest exprimi, quia videmus in vino sanguinem Christi 
ostendi, sicut in aqua populus fidelum intelligitur. Cyprianus, lib. 2, 
ep. 63, edit. Pamcl. 

§ Dedit Dominus noster in mensa propriis manibus panem et vinum : 
in cruce vero manibus militum corpus tradidit vulnerandum; ut signi- 
ficantia et significata eisdem vocabulis consecretur. Cypr. 1. de Unct. n. 7 
18* 



210 TRANSUBSTAXTIATIOX 

it was, that he mentioned his ascension into heaven, that lie 
might prevent them from understanding him corporally; 
and that they might then understand that the Jiesh of which 
he had spoken, was a heavenly and spiritual nourishmenf, 
which he would give them from above."* 

Eusebius, (an. 320,) in his r2th book of Demonstration, 
chap. 8, " We have been instructed to celebrate at the table, 
according to the laws of the New Testament, by the signs 
of the body and blood, and remembrance of this sacrifice.''' 
And in book 8, he hath said, " Christ delivered to his dis- 
ciples the signs or symbols of his dispensation, command- 
ing them to celebrate the figure of his own body."! 

Gregory Nazienzien, (an. 360,) in his second Oration, 
speaketh of the eucharist thus : " We shall, indeed, be par- 
takers of the passover, in figure, thougli more evidently 
than of the old passover. For the legal passover, I dare 
say, was a more ^ixli figure o( a figure.'"! 

Macarius of Egypt (an. 370) writes, "In the church, 
bread and wine, the type of his flesh and blood, are brought 
forward, and they who partake of the visible bread, do spi- 
ritually eat of the Lord's flesh. "§ 

St. Ambrose, (an. 380, in lib. 4, c. 5, of the Sacraments, 
has this prayer in the public form : "Grant that this obla- 
tion, which is the figure of the body and blood of Christ 
Jesus on earth, be imputed unto us as acceptable and rea- 
sonable. "|| 

* Dominus spiritum a came discriminavit, ut disceremus ea quae 
loqueatur non carnalia esse sed spiritualia. Quot enim hominibus cor- 
pus ejus sufficisset ad cibum, et universi mundi alimonia fierit 1 Sed 
propterea ascensionis suse in coeluni mentionem fecit, ut eos a corporali 
intellectu abstraherit, ad deinde camera suam de qua locutus erat cibutn 
e supemis coelestem et spiritualem alimoniam ab ipso donandum intelli- 
gerent. Athanas, in Joh. cap. 6. 

■j" TcuTcv i:i Tx Tcu -%jMATc? Txi' [xnixm eri Tg^Tn^n octsX£.7 Six auySi^ctY 
Tc-y Ts a-aiiAATOc: civrcv kxi aljuxroc TrA^UKiKponc. T/ir nic'.vx rcu iSav (ruijunrcs 

i MiT x?,>f~^ojuiBx rou Tratr^x vuv /u?v TUTrtKcog tri, a KXt nv ttaKxicu yyte^!- 
uaTi^ov. To yug^ vcixdc-.v 7rdL<r^x (^rzxij.a) km Krynv) tvttzu hv ru^o; siuvSgcTi^c;. 

TCU Al,UXTCC. Kui 01 KXlxjixvCVTi; VC Tew (pCJVZ/UiV.U OL^TiV TTV-'JUXTtKO:; TUf 

a-igKx rev Ku^tcv i^icvTt. Macar. ^gypt. Homil. 27. 

II Fac nobis banc oblationem ascriptam, rationabilem acceptabilem, 
(juod est figura corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Lib. 4, 
c. 5, Sacram. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 211 

Chrysostom, (an. 406,) in his Epistle against Appoiina- 
ris, sailh, "But ihejiesh of Christ, of which name tne con- 
secrated bread is made worthy, retains and conserves the 
property of its incorruptible nature, just as the bread re- 
mains in its own substance and nature. Before the bread 
is blessed, we call it bread ; but when it is consecrated by 
the divine grace, it is fit it should be called the Lord^s body^ 
although the nature of bread continues."* 

St. Jerome (an. 415, Epist. ad Fab. ol.) avers, "Moses 
beat the golden calf to powder and made the Hebrews drink 
it," [ut discant contemne.re quod in secessum projici vi- 
derent;) " that they might learn to despise what went into 
the privy," and which they had worshipped. 

St. Augustine, (an. 490,) on 98th Psalm, on our Lord's 
words, " ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and ' 
dtink his blood, ye have no life in yon ;' understand spirit- 
ually what I have said unto you ; ye shall not eat this iDody 
which ye see, nor drink that blood which shall be shed by 
those who shall crucify me. I have commended a sacred 
sign unto you, which, being understood spiritually, shall 
vivify you."t Again, in cap. 12, against Adimantus; "The 
Lord made no difficulty to say, 'This is my body,' when 
he gave the sign of his body." On the 3d Psalm, " The 
Lord admitted Judas to the banquet, in which he commended 
and gave to his disciples the figure of his body and blood.^^X 
The same, (inl. 3, c. 16, of Christian Doctrine,) "When the 
Lord saith, ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and 
drink his blood, ye have no life in you,' he seemeth to com- 
mand a wicked thing — a heinous crime. It is therefore a 
figure that commands to communicate with the passion of 

* Caro Christi cujus appellatione panis per sanctificationem sacerdotis 
dignus factus est, sed incorruptiE naturae et substantife panis remanet. 
Antequam sanctificetur panis, panem nominamus. Divina autem ilium 
consecrante gratia, Domini corpus appellari meruit, etsi natura panis 
permaneat. Chrysost. ad Cajsarium, Epist. cent, hajrisin. Appol. 

-j- Spiritualiter intelligete quod locutus sum. Non hoc corpus quod 
videtis manducaturi estis, bibituri ilium sanguinem quem fusuri sunt 
qui me crucifigent. Sacramentum aliquod vobis commendavi, spiritu- 
aliter intellectum vivificabit vos. 

\ Dominus non dubitavit dicere, Hoc est enim corpus meum cum 
daret signiim corporis sui. Dominus Judam adhibuit ad convivium, iii 
quo corporis et sanguinis sui figurarn discipulis suis commendavit et 
tradidit. 



212 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

our Lord, and to lay up sweetly and profitably in our memo- 
ry, that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us.^''* 

And in 26th Treatise on St. John, he saith, " To bJieve 
In him, is to eat the living bread; he that believes in him 
eateth him; he is fed invisibly, because he is regenerated 
invisibly." And in 25th Treatise, "To believe, this is to 
eat the w.eat that perisheth not. AVhy dost thou make 
ready thy teeth and thy belly? Believe, and thou hast 
eaten.^'\ 

And in Tract 27, " He said unto them, he would ascend 
into heaven whole indeed ; ' when ye shall see the Son of 
Man ascend where he was before,' certainly then, at least, 
you shall see that he giveth not his body, as you think ; 
verily, then you shall understand that his grac-e is not con- 
sumed with biting.^'^X Again, Tract 50, on " ikTe ye have 
not always,'''' " He speaks (says he) of the presence of his 
body ; ye shall have me according to my providence, ac- 
cording to my majesty and invisible grace; but according 
to the flesh which the Word of God assumed, according to 
that which was born of the virgin Mary ; ye shall not have 
me ; therefore, because he conversed with his disciples forty 
days, he is ascended up into heaven, and is not here." 

Fulgentius, (an. 450,) his disciple, in 17th chap, of his 
2d book to Trasimondus, thus writes, " How is Christ as- 
cended into heaven, but because he is in place, and a man 
indeed ? Or how is he present to his faithful ones, but 
because he is infinite, and a God indeed ?§ 

And the same father, in his 23d epistle to Boniface, speak- 
ing of figures, addeth, "If the sacred signs or sacraments, 

* Nisi manducaveritis (inquit) carnem filii hominis et biberitis san- 
guinem, non habebitis vitarn in vobis. Facinus vel flagitium videtui 
jubere. Figura ergo est, prrecipiens passioni Dominicae communican- 
dum, suaviter et utiliter in memoria recondendura quod caro ejus pro 
nobis crucifixa et vulnerata sit. 

■j- Credere in eum, hoc est manducare panem vivum ; qui credit m 
eura nianducat eum, invisibiliter saginatur, quia et invisibiliter renasci- 
tur. Ut quid paras denies et ventrem 1 Crede et manducasti. 

4 Sed addixit illis se ascensurum in ccelum utique integrum. Cum 
viderilis Filium Hominis ascendentem ubi erat prius, certe vel tunc vedeb- 
itis, quia non eo modo quo putatis, erogat corpus suum. Certe vel tunc 
intelligetis quod ejus gratia non consumitur morsibus, &c. 

§ Quoraodo ascendit in ccelum, nisi quia localis et verus est homo ? 
Aut quoraodo adest fidelibus suis, nisi quia idem immensus et verus est 
Deus] 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 213 

had not some resemblance of the things whereof they be 
sacred signs, they would not be sacred signs, or sacra- 
ments, at all ; but because of that resemblance, they take 
the name of the things they represent. Therefore, as the 
sacrament of the body of Christ is in some manner the body 
of Christ; so, the sacrament of faith, (i. e. baptism) is faith."* 

Upon these last words of St. Austin, is found, in the 
Roman canon, in the 2d distinction of the canon, "//oc es^," 
these words, " The heavenly bread which is the flesh of 
Christ, is after its manner, called ihebody of Christ, although 
to speak truly, it be the sacred sign of Christ's real body, to 
wit, of that which, being visible, palpable, mortal, was put 
upon the cross. "t And upon this, in same canon, the gloss 
of the doctors is truly remarkable and excellent: "The 
heavenly bread, which represents truly the flesh of Christ, 
is called the body of Christ, but improperly ; yet after its 
manner, it is so called, not according to the truth of the 
thing, but of the mystery of the thing signified.":}: So that 
the meaning is, it is called the body of Christ; that is, it 
signifies it. I shall add but one testimony more from this 
father, cited by Gratian, "As we receive the similitude of 
Christ's death in baptism, so, we may also receive the like- 
ness of his flesh and blood: that so, neither may truth be 
wanting in the sacrament, nor Pagans have room to make 
us ridiculous for drinking the blood of one that was slain. "§ 

Theodoret, (an. 440,) in Gen. ix. 55, saith, Tta?' ^avtov 
ebioixB^ov, &c. " That man must be stark mad who conceits 
that to be God which eats," and in Lev. qu. 11. " Moses 
commanded the Jews to eat, what other nations worshipped 
as gods, that these things being thus eaten," (and cast out ia 

* Si enim sacramenta quandam similitudinem illarum rerum quarum 
sacramenta sunt non haberent, omnino sacramenta non essent, ex hac 
autem similitudine plerumque ipsarum rerum nomina accipiunt, sicut 
ergo secundum quendam modum sacramentum corporis Christi, corpus 
Christi est, ita sacramentum fidei fides est. 

-j- Coelestis panis, qui Christi caro est, suo modo vocatur corpus Christi, 
sed revera sit sacramentum corporis Christi illius, videlicet quod palpabile, 
niortale, in cruce positum est. 

i Et ibi Glos. Coeleste sacramentum quod vere representat Chrisfi 
carnem dicitur corpus Christi, sed improprie, verum dicitur suo modo, 
sed non rei veritate, sed significante mysterio, ut sit sensus, vocatur Christi 
corpus, id est significatur, &c. 

§ Dist. 2. De consecrat. sect, ultim. 



214 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

the draught,) " might appear despicable." And in his first 
dialogue on these words, This is my body ; "The Lord 
hath honoured the visible signs with the appellation of his 
body and blood, not having changed iheiv nature, but having 
added grace to nature."* And in his 2d Dialogue, speaking 
to an Eutychian heretic, " Thou art caught in the nets thou 
hast woven ; for, even after the consecration, the symbols 
or mystical signs do not change their nature ; for, they 
remain in their fornner substance, form, and nature, and can 
be seen and touched, even as before."! 

Pope Gelasius, (an. 480,) has left us a treatise on the 
two natures of Christ, against Nestorius and Eutyches, of 
which, Fulgentius, who then lived, makes mention in his 
book to Ferrandus, 2d proposition. In it he thus speaks, 
" Certainly the sacraments of the body and blood of Christ, 
which we take are a divine thing, for which cause also by 
them we are made partakers of a divine nature ; and yet it 
ceaseth not to be the substance of bread and wine, and truly 
the image and similitude of Christ's body and blood are 
celebrated in the action of the mysteries. "J This pope, it 
seems, knew nothing of transubstantiation. 

Bishop Cosins, (De Symb. Corp. Christ, p. 82,) tells us, 
" that Cardinal Contarenus, in a disputation which he had 
in Ratisbon, (an. 1541,) was so overcome by the force of 
this luminous testimony of Gelasius, that {obmutuit) it 
struck him dumb ; and that he candidly confessed it silenced 
him." 

Facundus, (an. 550,) an African bishop, reasons thus :§ 
" The sacrament of adoption, (i. e. baptism,) may be called 

<pv(Tiv fAirct/^AXXaiy, uKXct th <pua-it ^u^iv 7rgo<mBuKQ>;, 4"C. Dial. 1. 

f Implicatus es in retibus eisdem, quae texuisti ; neque enim symbola 
sivesignamysticapostsanctificationemrecedunta natura sua, sed manent 
in priori sua substantia, forma et specie, et videri, et tangi possunt. Dial. 
2. ad Eutych. &c. 

i Certe sacramenta quae sumimus corporis et sanguinis Christ), divina 
res est: propter quod et per eadem divinse efficimur consortes naturae, ct 
tamen esse non desinit substantia panis et vini ; et certe imago et simili- 
tudo corporis et sanguinis Christi in actions mysteriorum celebrantur. 

§ Potest sacramentum adoptionis adoptio nuncupari. Sicut sacra- 
mentum corporis et sanguinis ejus quod est in pane et poculo consecrate 
corpus ejus, et sanguinem diciinus. Non quod jwro/??'ie corpus ejus sit 
panis, et poculum sanguis, sed quod in se mysterium corporis ejus ei 
sanguinis contineant. Facund. 1. 5, c. 6, p. 144. Edit. 1676. Paris. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 215 

adoption, even as we call the sacrament of his body and 
blood, which is in the bread and consecrated cup, his body 
and bloody not that the bread is properly his body, and the 
cup his blood : but because they contain in them the mystery 
of his body and blood." 

Thus are the fathers of the first six centuries after Christ 
perfectly agreed, that the eucharist was not properly, but in 
figure only, the body of Christ, and that it remained bread, 
and being eaten fed man's body, and was cast out in tlie 
draught: and thus were they in unison with Christ, his 
apostles, and gospel ! Now when it is owned all these were 
right, surely then the church of Rome is utterly wrong ; and 
for any of her doctors to attempt to make any of those speak 
for transubstantiation, &c. is foully to belie them, and hold 
themselves up to public ridicule as calumniators of the saints. 
We shall now go forward for 1000 years more, and prove 
the same. 

Hesychius (an. 601) writes, " That it was the custom to 
throw what remained of the elements after the communion 
into the fire and burn them."* This proves they did not in 
that age believe that the sacrament was our Lord's human 
body, else they would not have burned it. 

Venerable Bede, (an. 720,) in his commentary on Lev. 
chap. 22, saith, "Christ, in place of the flesh and blood of 
the lamb, substituted the sacrament of his own flesh and 
blood, in the figure of bread and wine."t And on Psalm 
3, " He gave to his disciples, in the last supper, the figure 
of his most holy body and blood." 

(An. 754,) The council of Constantinople, of three hun- 
dred and thirty-eight bishops, declared, wj ovx oxkov ftSov? 
iTiCkiX^ivioc, Ttap' o.vtov, &c. " That Christ chose no other 
shape or type under heaven to represent his incarnation 
(and passion) by, but the sacrament which he delivered to 
his ministers, for a type and most effectual commemoration 
thereof," &c. Tom. 3, p. 599, edit. Romee, an. 1622. This 
testimony of so many, agreeing as it so exactly does with all 
antiquity and the gospel, is of great weight. 

* Quse post peractam commum'onem elementorum reliquias superes- 
sent in ignem conjedas coniburentur. L. 2. in Leo. c. 8. 

f Loco carnis et sanguinis agni, substituit Christus sacramentum 
carnis suae et sanguinis in figura panis et vini. — Dedit in cceno diaci- 
^\xYi& Jigurani sacro-saucli corporis et sanguinis sui." 



216 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

Charles the Great, (an. 778,) in his epistle lo Alcuine, 
de Ratione Septuag., saith, "When Christ supped with his 
disciples, he broke bread, and likewise gave them the cup, 
as a FIGURE of his body and blood, and hath presented to 
us a great sacrament.^'' ^ 

Rabanus Maurus, (an. 825,) " the most noble doctor," 
as saith Trithemius, " which Italy or Germany ever pro- 
duced,"" in his book de Instit. Cler. 1. 1, c. 31, thus writes, 
" The Lord's will was, that the sacraments of his body and 
blood should be received by the mouth of the faithful, and 
become their food, that by the visible body might be repre- 
sented an invisible effect; for, as this material food nourishes 
the outward body and mahes it grow, even so the word and 
grace of God inwardly nourish the soul. For as the sacra- 
inent, when we eat and drink it, is converted into lis, even 
so we, provided we live obediently and piously, are con- 
verted into the body of Christ ; therefore the faithful do 
well and truly receive the body of Christ, and become the 
body of Christ (i. e. his people,) if they be careful to live 
by the spirit of Christ."! And in his epistle to Heribaldus, 
c. 33, written in 847, speakmg o{ Paschasius, and reciting 
the very words wherein he had delivered his doctrine of the 
corporal presence, he hath these remarkable words : ' Some 
of late, not having a right ojnnion concerning the sacrament 
of the body and blood of our Lord, have said, ''That this is 
the BODY and blood of our Lord, which was born of the 
virgin Mary, and in which our Lord suffered on the 
cross, and rose from the dead,' which ERROR we have 
opposed with all our might." 

(An. 860,) The pious and learned Bertram's answer to 
Charles the Bald, whose subjects were divided by no small 
schism about the mystery of Chrisfs body and blood, is 
extant. This emperor put him these two questions, 1st. 
Whether what is received in the church by the mouths of 
the faitliful be the body and blood of Christ in mystery or 
figure ? 2d. Whether that natural body which was born 

* Cliristus ccenando cum discipulis panem fregit, et calicem panter 
dedit eis 'mji^uram corporis et sanguinis sui, &c. 

j- Maluit Dominus corporis et sanguinis sui sacramenta fidelium ore 
percipi, et in pastum eorum redigi, — sicut enini cibus niaterialis forin- 
secus nutrit corpus et vegetal, ita etiam verbum Dei intus animam nu- 
trit et roboratj <Scc. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 217 

of the virgin Mary suffered, died, and was buried, and that 
eits at the right hand of God the Father, be it which is 
dstily received through the mystery of the sacrament, by the 
mouths of the faithful ? Bertram replies to the first in the 
affirmative ; to the second in the negative, saying, " There 
is as great a difference between this twofold body as there 
is between a pledge and that thing of which it is the pledge ; 
because that bread and wine are figuratively the body and 
blood of Christ ; according to the substance of the creature, 
wliat they were before consecration the same they remain 
after, for the consecrated bread is not really Christ. If the 
mystery was done in no figure, it could not be called a 
mystery. — Things which are different are not the same. 
The body of Christ which died and rose again, and is now 
become immortal, dieth not, is eternal, and can suffer no 
more ; but this body which is celebrated in the church is 
temporal and not eternal ; corruptible, not incorruptible."* 

This testimony so wounded the Spanish inquisitors, that 
in their Index they decreed, " Let the book of Bertram on 
the Lord's body and blood be entirely suppressed." What 
less is this than to say suppress, root out every book and 
man of truth that would detect and expose our falsehoods ? 

Heriger, (980,) an English abbot, composed a homily 
which w^as used in the churches in London in 990, as fol- 
lows : " There is a vast difference between the body in 
which Christ suffered and that body consecrated in the host. 
'J'he one was born of the virgin Mary, consisting of flesh, 
bones, skin, nerves, human members, and a rational soul ; 
but his spiritual body, which we call the host, is niade of 
many grains, without blood, bones, members, or soul. The 
body which once died, and rose from the dead, shall die no 

• 1. An quod in ecclesia fidelium ore sumitur, corpus et sanguis 
Christi in mysterio, seu figura, fuit? 2. An ipsum naturale corpus 
Maria virgine nalum est, passum, mortuum et sepultum, quodque ad 
dextram Dei patris consedit, sit illud quod ore fidelium per sacramcnti 
mysterium quoliJie sumitur { — Bertramnus, respondet prim.-E affirma- 
tive, secundse vero negative, dicens, tantum inter utrumque corpus esse 
discrimen quantum est inter pignus et earn rem pro qua pignus trailitur, 
&c. Et quffi a se differunt, idem non sunt; corpus Chrisli quod mor- 
tuum est, et resurrexit et immortale factum jam non morilcrj njternum 
est, nee ulterius passibile. Hoc autem quod in ecclesia cel«;bratur, tem- 
porale est, non seternum ; corruptibile est, non incorruptum. Lib. <.le 
Corp. et Sang. Dom. pars prima, ibid, part 2. 



218 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

more, but is eternal and impassible ; but the host is tempo 
rai, corruptible, distributed into different parts, ground 
by the teeth, and passeth into the belly ; lastly, this is a 
mystery, pledge, and figure ; but the body of Christ is truth 
itself. What is seen is bread, — what is understood spiritu- 
ally is life."* 

" Berengarius, (an. 1095,) an archdeacon, and a very 
pious and illustrious man, was compelled by Pope Nicholas 
II. and his council of one hundred and thirteen bishops at 
Rome," saith Gratian, " to sign a recantation, in which are 
these words : ' I, Berengarius, submit to the holy Roman 
and apostolic seat ; I profess and believe, that the bread and 
v/ine which are placed on the altar, after the consecration, are 
not only the sacrament or symbol, but the true body and 
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are sensibly, not only 
in the sacrament, but in truth handled and broken by the 
hands of the priest, and ground by the teeth of the faith- 
ful."! Masson, Annal. Franc, lib. 3, states, " By imprison- 
ment, threats, and the fear of death was this extorted from 
him, and to burn his books also." Saith John Semeca, 
(1. 2, c. 15,) on this confession in Gratian, "iVzsi sane intelli- 
gas, verba Berengarii, in majofem incidis hseresin quam 
ipse habuit.^^ " Unless the words of Berenger (or rather of 
Pope Nicholas and council) be warily understood, you shall 
fall into greater heresy than he held." And we are told by 
Thos. \Yaldensis and others, "that (in 1079,) just twenty 
years after, Pope Gregory VII., seeing the last pope and 
council, by the writing which they obliged Berengarius 

* Multum interest inter corpus in quo passus est Christus et corpus 
quod in hostia consecratui-. Corpus quidem in quo Christus passus est, 
ex Marias virginis carne natum est, &c. At spirituale ejus corpus, quod 
hnstiam appellamus ex multis granis collectum est. Corpus Christi quod 
semel raortuum est, seternum est et impassibile ; hostia vero est tempora- 
ria et corruptibilis, in varias partes distributa, dentibus confecta, et in 
vcntrem transmissa, &c. 

f Ego Uerengarius, &c., consentio sanctoe Roraanae sedi, coide pro- 
fitr-or et ore, et — de sacramentis Dominiciae mensa?, earn fidem me tenere 
quam Dominus Papa Nicolaus et hsec s. synodus authoritate evangehca 
et apostoUca tenendaui tradidit, mihique firmavit; scilicet, paneni et 
vinum qu£e in altari ponuntur, post consecrationem, veruni corpus et 
.»janguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christi esse, et sensunliter, non solum 
Sacramento sed veritate, manibus sacerdotum tractari, fiangi et fideliuuj 
dentibus atteri. Ajnid Gratian, de consecv, dis. 2, c. 42. Baron, ad 
ann. 1059. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 219 

to sign, taught that the real body of Christ was ' broken 
into parts by the priests, and chewed by the teeth of the 
people,'' and being sensible of this absurdity, called another 
council at Rome, and compelled Berengarius to recant in 
this form : * That the bread and wine which are set upon 
the altar are, by the consecration, substantially changed into 
the true, and proper, and vivifying flesh and blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and are that true body which was born 
of the virgin, and which being offered for the salvation of 
the world, did hang upon a cross, and sits upon the right 
hand of the Father.' "* 

Here, we see pope and council against pope and council, 
decreeing infallibly, not only against each other, but 
against all antiquity, common sense, and truth I And here 
is proof indisputable, that transubstantiation was not at this 
time well understood by the popes and their councils, nor 
was it to them, therefore, a settled article of the faith of 
the church of Rome, nor was it fully sufh till the fourth 
council of Lateran, under Pope Innocent III., an. 1215: as 
Scotus and others well observe, before this it was not 
adored, nor until 1216. But new doctrines and new ado- 
ration are pronounced as accursed of God. Gal. i. 8. Wo 
then to them who follow them ! ! ! 

Proof here is of very great importance. Scotus writes, 
*' The church decreed that meaning, to wit, ' that the bread 
and wine are changed into our Lord's body and blood, to 
be of the verity of faith,' in the creed set forth under Inno- 
cent III. in the council of Lateran, in 1215." In 4 Sent, 
dist. II, qu. 3.1" But Belhrmine writes, "One thing Sco- 
tus says, which cannot be proved, that before the Lateran 
council transubstantiation was not a dogma of the faith ; 
but he said so, because he had not read the council of 
Rome under Gregory VK." — an. 1090, &c.:j: So, then, 
Bellarmine has no other way of gainsaying Scotus ! This 
rather strongly confirms what he, Scotus, had said. 

* Excus. cum Lanfranci libro ; et apud Biniura. T. Waldens. torn. 
ii. c. 42, et in Re. Gest. Greg. VII. 

f Ecclesia declaravit istum iniellectum, nempe, ' Panem transub' 
atantiari in corpus, et vinum in sanguinem Domini nosiri, esse de 
ventate Jidei,^ in islo symbolo ediio sub Innocentio III. in concilia 
Laterensi, an. 121.5, SfC. 

t Unum tainen addit Scotus quod minime probandum est, anlo 



220 TRAXSUBSTA^TTIATION 

The learned Tonstali, Bishop of Durham, says tlie same. 
'Would it. not have been better to leave every inquisitive 
person to his own opinion concerning the manner of the 
real presence in the eucharist, as was free to every one to 
do before the Lateran council, provided that faith of the 
church which was from the beginning was acknowledged."* 

St. Bernard, (an. 1190,) on John, c. vi. saith, "Many 
things are done ; some simply ojily ; and some to desig- 
nate other things, and therefore get the names of these 
things, and are signs of them. A ring is given as a ring, 
absolutely ; then there is nothing signified. It is given 
also to entitle to an inheritance, it is then the sign of it ; 
even so, he who receives the ring may instantly say, the 
ring of itself is little worth, yet, it is the inheritance which 
I sought, i. e. the token of it. After this manner, there- 
fore, did our Lord, when drawing nigh to his passion, take 
care that his disciples should be invested w^ith a significant 
title to his grace ; that invisible grace should be exhibited 
to them by some visible sign: for this end have all sacra- 
ments been instituted, and for this end is the eucharist to be 
received."! Again he saith, " That the body of Christ is 
in a mystery, the food of the mind and not of the belly; 
hence it is not eaten corporally ; for such as is this food, 
so it is understood to be eaten. "± His argument plainly is, 

Lafarense co7iciliiim non fuisse dogma jidd irmisuhstaniioitevi . 
■Ha enim ilk dixit quia non legerat concilium Romanum sub Gre- 
gorlo VII. 6fc.—L 3, de Sacr. Euch. c. 23. 

* An satius, an vero potius fuisset de modo quo id fieret curiosum 
quemque suss relinquere conjectures, sicut Uberuni fait ante illud con- 
cilium, modo veiitatem corporis et sanguinis Domini in eucharistia esse 
faferetur quse fuit ab initio ipsa ecclesise fides. ToiistalL de Euchar. }. 
1. p. 48. 

■\ Multa (inquit) fiunt propter se tantum, alia vero propter alia de- 
signanda et ipsa dicuntur et sunt signa. Datur annulus propter annu- 
lum, absolute, et nulla est significatio : datur etiam ad investienduni 
aliquem in hsereditatem, et signum est; ita ut jam dicere posset qui 
accipit annulum ; Annulus per se non valet quidquam, sed haereditas est, 
quam quserebam. In hunc itaque modum, appropinquans passioni 
Dominus, de gratia sua invpstiri curavit suos, ut invisibilis gratia signo 
aliquo vi,«ibilL prtestaretur. Ad hsec instituta sunt omnia sacramenta, 
ad hcec eucbarislia; participatio. Serm. do Coena Domini, in S. Johan. 
vi. 56— f)2. 

t Quod Christi corpus in mysterio cibus mentis sit et non ventris, 
proinde cnrpnralitir non nianducat'ir : Sicut enim cibus est, ita ei 
comedi intelligatur. Serra. de Purif. B. Marise. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY 221 

that as the ring undergoes no change, and though called the 
inheritance, yet it is not the inheritance, bat a token of it 
only ; so also are the sacraments not changed, thougii 
called by the names of the things of which they are sacra- 
ments : and that as it is the mind that is to be nourished, 
so cannot the body of Christ or his eucharist be received 
corporally. Hence, no transubstantiation ! 

Aquinas (an. 1260) saith, " The body of Christ is not 
in this sacrament, as a body is in a place, which by its pro- 
per dimensions can be measured in a place, but in some 
special way proper to the sacrament ; hence, we say, the 
body of Christ is on different altars, yet, not as in dif- 
ferent places, but as in the sacrament ; for the body of 
Christ is not in any manner in the sacrament locally, or as 
a body in a place, because, if it were, it would be divided 
from itself,"* which is impossible. Behold ! the perplexity 
of this great man, in striving to reconcile error with truth ; 
his own explanation proves, either that this body is not a 
local, real body, but sacramental only, as all truth testifies, 
or his doctrine is an absurdity ! Bellarmine upon this cries 
out, " If a body cannot be in two places locally, because it 
would be separated from itself; truly, then, it cannot, for 
the same reason, be sacramentally in two places. "t i. e. if 
it be properly a body, it surely cannot. 

The Helvetian Confession, (an. 1566 ;) " The bread is 
presented outwardly by the minister, and the words of the 
Lord are heard, Take, eat, this is my body; Take and 
divide it among you, Drink ye all of this ; this is my blood. 
Therefore the faithful receive what the Lord's servant gives, 
and they drink of the cup of the Lord, inwardly at the 
same time feel the work of Christ by the Holy Spirit, per- 
ceive, or discern the flesh and blood of the Lord, and by 
these are nourished to life eternal. — Our Lord is not absent 

* Corpus Christi non est eo modo in hoc sacramento, sicut corpus 
in loco, quod suis dimensionibus loco commcnsuratur, sed quodam spe- 
ciali modo qui est proprius huic sacramento. Unde dicinms quod est 
corpus Chrisli in diverois alturibus, non sicut in diversis locis, sed sicut 
in sacramento localiter, quia si esset, divideretur a seipso. Aquin. Op 
torn. 12. Sura. par. 3, q. 75, art. I, ad. 3, p. 232,' col, 2, q. 79 ed. 
Antw. 1612. 

■j" Si non possit esse corpus localiter in duobus locis quia divideretur a 
seipso, profecto non esse potest sacramentaliter eadem ratione. Bel- 
larra. de Euch. 1. 3, p. 512, t. 3, ed. Paris, 1620. 
19^ 



222 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

from his Church, when taking the supper; the sun, f;ir 
from us in the firmament, is powerfully present with us ; 
how much more is Christ, the sun of righteousness, though, 
as to hJs body, in heaven absent from us, yet present with 
as ; not corporally indeed, but spiritually, by a vivifying 
operation, even as he declared at the last supper (John 
xiv. XV. xvi.) he would be present with us. Hence, conse- 
quently, we have no comm.union without Christ.* "This," 
saith Bishop Cosins, " was besides signed by all the Pro- 
testant Churches in Germany, Hungary, Transylvania, 
Lithuania, Poland, Geneva, and Scotland. "t 

Confession of the Protestants of France. — Art. 36. 
' Although Christ be now in heaven, there to remain too, 
till he shall come to judge the world ; yet we believe that 
He, through the secret and ineffable virtue of his Spirit, 
doth nourish and vivify us by the substance of his body and 
blood, received by faith. But we say that this is done 
spiritually, not that we put imagination or cogitation in 
place of verity and efficacy, but rather because the mystery 
of our intercourse with Christ is so sublime that it over- 
powers all our senses, and therefore the whole course of 
nature. Also, we believe that in the sacred supper God 
gives us in very deed, that is, truly and effectually, what- 
ever he doth sacramentally signify, and hence with the 
signs we conjoin the true possession and fruition of that 
benefit which is there offered us ; therefore that that bread 
and that cup given us are indeed made spiritual nourishment 



* An. 1566. Foris offertur a ministro panis, et audiuntur voces 
Domini, Accipite, Edite, Hoc est corpus meum : Accipite et dividite 
inter vos. Bibite ex hoc omnes ; hie est sanguinis meus. Ergo acci- 
piunt fideles quod datur a ministro Domini, ac bibunt de poculo Domini, 
intus interim opera Christi per Spiritum Sanctum percipiunt, etiara 
carnem et sanguinem Domini, et pascuntur his in vitam feternum. — Non 
est absens eccIesiEe sues celebranli coenam Dominus. Sol absens a nobis 
in ccelo, nihilominus efficaciter presens est nobis ; quanto magis sol jus- 
titiae Christus, corpore in ccelis absens nobis, presens est nobis, non cor- 
poraliter quidem, sed spiritualiter, per vivificam operationem, ut ipse se 
nobis presentem, exposuit in ultima ccena. Unde consequens est, nos 
non habere ccenam sine Christo, &c. 

•j" Huic autem confession! subscripserunt praeter omnes reformatas 
Hungarics, Transylvanicje, Polonicse, Lithuanicfe, Scoticanaj, &c. 
Johan. ('osin. de Sacr. Symb. et ver. Praesen. Ohris. in Sacram. Euch. 
p. 26. Load. 1676. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 223 

to US, to wit, as far as they assist, as it were, our eyes to 
behold that the flesh of Christ is our food, and his blood 
our drink. Therefore we reject all those as fanatics who 
repudiate these signs and symbols, seeing Christ our Lord 
pronounced. This is my body. This cup is my blood."* 
This confession was framed by the Synod in Paris, and 
then presented to King Charles IX. The Church of Ge- 
neva subscribed it. 

The Confession of the Protestants of England in 
1562. — " The clergy must never teach any thing which 
they would have the people religiously believe, but what is 
in agreement with the doctrine of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, and what the catholic fathers and ancient bishops 
drew from that doctrine : he that shall do otherwise by any 
contrary doctrine disquiets the people, and must be excommu- 
nicated ! Therefore this synod teacheth, that in the sacra- 
ment of the eucharist, the body of Christ is given, taken, 
and eaten, and that the bread so consecrated and broken is, 
to the true receivers thereof, the communication of the body 
of Christ; and in like manner the sacred cup is the com- 
munion of the blood of Christ; but that the wicked, and 
such as approach the sacrament of so great a thing, un- 
worthily, eat and drink it to their condemnation, and be- 
come guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."t 

* CoxFEssio Gallicana. Art. 36. — " Quamvis nunc Christus in 
ccelis sit, ibidem etiara mansurus donee veniat mundum judicaturus ; 
credimus tamen eum, arcana at incomprehensibili Spiritus sui virtute, 
nos nutrire et vivijicare corporis et sanguinis sui substantia, per 
Jideni apprehensa. Dicimus autem hoc spiritunUter fieri, non ut veri- 
tatis et efficacife loco imaginalionem aut cogitationem supponamus, sed 
potius quoniam hoc mysterium nostree cum Christo colitionis tarn sub- 
lime est, ut omnes nostros sensus totumque adeo ordinem naturae supe- 
rat. Item, Credimus in sacra coena Deum nobis reipsa, id est, vere et 
efficaciter donare quicquid ibi sacramentaliler figurat, ac proinde cum 
signis conjungimus veram possessionem ac fruitionem ejus rei quce ibi 
nobis oflertur : itaque panem ilium et vinum illud quse nobis dantur, 
vere nobis fieri spirituale alimentum, quatenus videlioit occulis nostiis 
velut sppctandum praebent carnem Christi nostrum cibum esse, et ejus- 
dem sanguinem nobis esse potus. Itaque fanaticos omncs illos rejici- 
mus qui hrec signa et symbola repudiant, quum Christus Dominus nos- 
ier pronunciavit. Hoc est corpus meum. et hoc poculum est sanguis 
meus." Huic autem Confessioni subscripsit ecclesia Genevensis. Leu- 
letiae Synodo National! Constituta, el Kegi Carolo IX. exhibita. Job. 
Cosin. de Sacr. Sym. p. 23. 

f Ecclesise Anglicanse Confessio. Nequid unquam doceant quod a 



224 TRAXSUBSTAXTIATIOX 

Luther. — As so much has been said about this great 
man, much for hira, and very much bitterly against him by 
the papal doctors, I subjoin his declaration also on this sub- 
ject. He affirmed his judgment to be, " That the body and 
blood of Christ were not united or locally included with the 
bread and wine by any natural junction ; nor did he ascribe 
any virtue to the sacraments, by which they could of them- 
selves convey life to the receivers ; but that he concluded a 
sacramental union only, between the body of our Lord and 
the bread, and between the blood and the wine. That he 
likewise taught that the confirmation of faith which he 
attributed to the sacraments, rested in a divine virtue, not 
any that adhered in the external elements themselves, but 
what is Christ's, and is communicated by his spirit, through 
his words and sacraments."* How wretchedly has this 
man been misrepresented ! Why ? Because he led the 
people off from the pope and his clergy and false dogmas, 
to Christ and his sacred gospel, and had translated it into 
the mother tongue ! ! ! 

The learned Erasmus, writing to Albert, cardinal and 
prince, saith of Luther, " That why he was partial to him 
was, because of his being a good man, a thing his very 



populo religiose credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinas Veteris 
aut Novi Testaraenti, quodque ex iila ipsa doctrina Catholic! patres et 
veteres episcopi coUegerint : qui secus fecerit et contraria doctrina popu- 
lum turbaverit, excommunicandus est. Docet igitur in sacramento 
eucharistiffi, Corpus Christi dari, accipi, et manducari, alque adeo rite 
sumentibus panem consecratum et fractum esse communicationem cor- 
poris Christi ; simihter et poculura benedictum esse communionem san- 
guinis Christi: impios autem et indigne ad tantse rei sacramentum 
accedentes, illud sibi ad judicium manducare, et condemnationem bibere, 
quia efficiuntur rei ejusdera corporis et sanguinis Domini. Ordiar. ab 
Eccles. Anglic, art. Relig. cap. 28, 29. Publicis Regni legibus stabiliti. 
An. 1562. In Lib. Can. Public auctor. edit. an. 1571. Cap. de Con- 
cion. 

* Lutherus quoque sententiam suam declaravit etaffirmavit: "Non 
ulla se natura? copula corpus et sanguinera Christi unire cum pane et 
vino, et localiter includere, neque sacramentis, propriam tribuere virtu- 
lem, qua salutem ex se afferant ea sumentibus ; sed sacramentalem 
solum unionem inter corpus Domini et panem, interque sanguinem et 
vinum statuere ; tum eliam docere confirmationem fidei quam sacramen- 
tis tribuit, nili virtute, non quae ipsis inhsereat externis rebus per se, 
verum quae sit Christi, et dispensetur ejus spiritu per verba et symbola." 
Joh. Cosin De Sacr. Symbol, p. 22. Tom. 20 Opera Lutheri." 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 225 

enemies acknowledged, — and this I observe, that the best 
men are least offended with his writings."* Again, Frede- 
rick, Duke of Saxony, said, "Erasmus did truly point out 
Luther's two chief faults. That he meddled with the pope's 
crown, and with the monk's bellies. ''f And Guiccardino 
of Italy saith, " Many conceived that the troubles raised 
against Luther had their origin in the innocency of his 
life, and the soundness of his doctrine, rather than in any 
thing else !"j 

Here we have the truth. With regard to the story of his 
conversing with the devil ; our Lord and his apostles 
talked with Satan, as did other saints too. But the fact 
Luther nrentions is. That as he had in his ignorance been 
so long saying masses, and that masses are idolatrous, 
Satan tempted him because of all this klolatry to despair 
of salvation ! ! 

Here are Luther's words : " Quid, si tales missse hor- 
rendas sint idolatrise,^^ ^-c. " What ! if such masses were 
horrible idolatries ? Hence, good brother, Mr. Papist, 
Satan, when he accuses me of this, and urgeth the heinous- 
ness of the sin, he doth not lie ; but then Satan lieth, when 
he Avould so far urge it as to make me despair of the mercy 
and grace of God — the devil lieth in tempting me to despair, 
with Cain ; I will therefore, with Peter, be sorry for my 
fault and return to my Saviour," &c.§ 

That the devil did talk with Christ and his servants, and 
can tell truth to serve a purpose, as do all liars, is clear 
from his speech to Christ and his apostles, (Luke viii. 28. 
Acts xvi. 17,) " Thou art the son of the most High God" — 
" These men are the servants of God who show us the' way 

* Et tamen si ille faverem, ut viro bono, qaoi fatentur et hostes; 
niud video ut quisquis vir est optimus, ita illius scriplis minims offendi. 
Erasm. torn. 3. in Epist. ad Albert. Epis. et Princ. Mogun. Cardinal. 

■\ Erasmus duo magna peccata Lutheri dixit; Quod ventris monacho- 
rum et coronam papae attigisset. Char, in Chron. Auct. a Pancero, lib. 
5. Here are candid Romish writers I 

\ Come se le persecutioni nascessimo piu dalla innocenza della sua 
vita, et dalla sanita dalla doctrina che da altra cagione. Guiccard. His- 
tor. Ital. 1. 13. p. 380. 

§ Quid ! Si tales missse horrendse essent idblatriae 1 — Proinde bone 
frater domine Papista non mentitur Satan quando accusat, aut urgel 
niagnitudinem peccati — Sed ibi mentitur Satan quando ultra urget ul 
desperem de gratia, &c. Luther, torn. vii. de miss. Priv. p. 230. 



226 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

of salvation." If then he talked to Luther, inwardly or 
vocally, and that the priests for this blacken him, as if of 
the devil, why not go farther and also blacken Christ and 
his apostles and their followers ? Shame on these un 
worthy, dishonest writers, who have been holding up tills 
man and Protestants as followers of the devil ! But as 
soon as Romanists discover this truth, that no informed 
Protestants take their religion from any man, good or bad, 
but from Christ and his gospel only, the cheat put on them, 
and the whole priestly trick, shall be spoiled at once, and 
their craft go to the four winds ! 

Calvin, on the Lord's supper, — "If our Lord by the 
breaking of bread represents truly the participation of his 
body, there ought to be no doubt but he truly presents and 
exhibits. For if it be true that he gives us a visible sign, 
to seal the gift of an invisible thing ; upon receiving tiie 
symbol of his body, we may surely trust that he will no 
less give us his body itself also. Absurdities apart, what- 
ever, in order to express the true and substantial communi- 
cation of the Lord's body and blood that is, which the sacred 
symbols of the supper exhibited to the faithful, that he can 
do, I freely receive ; and so that they may be understood, 
that I discern them, not in imagination only, or in the 
mind's understanding, but that I, in very deed, enjoy them 
to the nourishment of life eternal."* 

Having thus collected out of many these few testimonies 
of these fathers, and of other learned divines, from nearly 
the apostles' days to the sixteenth century, we learn by 
them and the Holy Scriptures, 1st, That the body and blood 
of Christ was taken in five several senses, three of which 
particularly are, 1. His natural body and blood, which 
was born and crucified, and is now glorified. — 2. His figu- 

* Dominus, si per fractionern panis corporis sui participationem vere 
representat, minime dubium esse debet, quin vere prsestet atque exhiboat. 
Quod si verutn est prseberi nobis signum visibile, ad obsignandum invi- 
siblis rei donationem ; accepto corporis symbolo non minus corpus etiani 
ipsum nobis dari certo confidamus. Absurditatihus omissis, quicquid, 
ad experimendam veram substantialemque corporis ac sanguinis Domini 
communicationem quae cum sacris coenae symbolis fidelibus exhibitur, 
facere potest, libenter recipio ; atque ita ut non imaginationem dun- 
taxat, aut mentis intelligentia percipere, sed ut re ipsa frui in alimen- 
tum vitJB EeternsB intelligantur. Instit. Chr. Relig. 1. 4, c. 17, Joh. Cos. 
de Sacr, Symb. p. 29. 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 227 

nitive, commemorative, or sacramental body and blood, 
made of earthly matter, which is eaten by the mouth, goeih 
into the belly, feedeth the body, and is cast out into the 
draught, as saith our Lord, (Mark vii. 19,) and, 3. His 
" celestial body and blood, which being poured into the 
cars'''' by the word of God, and communicated by the Hdly 
Spirit, through faith, to the souls of true believers, sanctifies 
and nourishes them to eternal life. And as David called 
the water brought him by his three mighty men, blood, 
because obtained at the expense of their blood, saying, 
" Shall I drink the blood of these men who put their lives 
in jeopardy?" (1 Chron. xi. 19;) even so, \h\s living bread, 
or grace or heavenly substance, is called Jiesh and bltod, 
or body of Christ, (as we have just seen, p. 203,) beciuse 
procured for us by the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb blain 
from the foundation of the ivorld ; slain, first, by promise, 
and then on the cross. 

2d. In this blood of the Lamb did all the saints of every 
age and nation " wash their robes and make them white," 
even before Christ had any blood recdly, or was born, as 
did Abel, all the patriarchs, prophets, and other holy per- 
sons, before and after the flood. (Rev. v. 9 ; vii. 14.) If, 
then, all that are in heaven were washed in this blood ; so, 
in the same sense, did all those eat of his body, who lived, 
some thousands of years before he had any human body: 
and if they did, in what other sense can any believer eat it 
or partake of it for ever? This body and blood, however 
variously represented in different dispensations, whether 
by Abel's lamb, by manna, the water of the rock, Jewish 
sacrifices, or by bread and wine since the last suppei, was, 
from age to age, to believers, still the same thing, however 
differing in degree. Of this body and blood, I repeat, did 
Abel eat, as did all the saints, before the flood, after it, to 
the crucifixion, and to this day, as these fathers testify ; and 
as St. Paul saith. Our fathers all ate the same spiritital 
MEAT, and drank the same spiritual drink. (1 Cor. x.) 
"Yes," saith St. Augustine, on John vi., " they did eat the 
same spiritucd meat with us, but other corporal food ; they 
did eat manna, we another thing, but yet they ate th.e same 
spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink with us 
Moses did eat manna, and Aaron and Phineas, and many 
others who pleased God, and died not, ate thereof. How 



228 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

SO ? because they did spiritually understand their visible 
food, they did hunger spiritually, and taste, and were spi- 
ritually filled. The manna signified this bread, the altar 
of God signified the same ; these were sacraments differing 
in the signs, but agreeing in the thing signified. So, we 
at this day receive visible food, but the sacrament is one 
thing, and the virtue is another thing." And on verse 58, 
" This is that bread which came down from heaven ; he 
that eateth thereof shall live forever. This must be under- 
stood of him who eats the virtue meant by the sacrament, 
not the mere sacrament, who eats imvardly, not outwardly ; 
who feeds on that virtue in his heart, not who presseth the 
sacrament with his teeth." 

3d. That no wicked person, but believers only, can re- 
ceive this body and blood, or divine substance^ and that 
it is received by some, by a living faith, without the out- 
ward sacraments ; which is allowed by the very council of 
Trent, as we have seen ; or at the sacrament of baptism, or 
by prayer, nay, in every divinely appointed means of grace 
where living, obedient faith is in exercise. Divinely ap 
pointed, I say ; for God cannot smile upon any thing else 
nor therefore give his grace and salvation to the audacious 
teachers and stupid followers of known superstitions. 
Hence, as no man would wish to lose his labour, and get 
himself a curse instead of a blessing, so should every one 
examine if all be of God or not. 

4th. That for more than six or seven hundred years after 
Christ, transubstantiation was not known in the world. 
Hence, antiquity, scripture, reason, many cardinals, and 
other eminent doctors, nay, the very canon of the mass, as 
I have proved, all condemn it; and by prop. 5, 6, (page 
180,) and by the foregoing arguments, it is fully demon- 
strated, that Christianity and it are opposites, and cannot 
stand together : hence, it must be false. Now, as no being 
whatever can make falsehood truth — hence, no power 
whatever can, with truth, support transubstantiation. 

"Many discerning persons of the church of Rome," 
saith Tillotson, " are groM'n so sensible of this ridiculous 
doctrine, that they would now gladly be rid of it; but the 
councn of Trent hath riveted it so fast into their religion, 
and made it so necessary and essential a part of their belief, 
that they cannot now part with it. It is a mill-stone hung 



AN IMPOSSIBILITr. 229 

about the neck of popery, which will sink it at the last. 
And though some of their greatest wits, as Cardinal Per- 
ron, Arnault, &c., have written great volumes in its defence, 
yet it is an absurdity of that monstrous and massy weight, 
that no human authority or wit is able to support. It 
will make the very pillars of St. Peter'' s crack! and require 
more volumes to make it good than would fill the Vatican.''^ 
Til. Ser. on Transub. 

Saith Averroes, the Arabian philosopher, "I have travelled 
over the world, and have found diverse sects ; but so sottish 
a sect or law I never found, as is the sect of the Christians; 
because with their own mouth they devour their God, whom 
they worship 1" So did this doctrine shock this heathen. 

Now sum up the whole, and add all the confusion and 
desolations this strange doctrine has caused in the earth, the 
seas of blood it has spilt, by the inquisition, the sword, 
burning, hanging, drowning, starving, banishment, and va- 
rious persecutions of such as opposed it; that it is at vari- 
ance with Christ and his religion ; shocks every thinking 
Pagan, Jew, and Mohammedan, and must therefore prevent 
their conversion to Christ : that being in itself a self-contra- 
diction, an impossibility, it has involved all those men, even 
of the greatest parts, who undertook to defend it, in such 
mazes and absurdities as makes every sensible man of tliat 
church who reads their {subtleties, not) arguments, blush ; 
and made the great Perron himself, who tried his strength 
to colour it over, exclaim, "// is a monster. '^^ and finally, 
that it leads to instant infidelity, and therefore to the destruc- 
tion of multitudes, body and soul, eternally. Can any man 
of sense, seeing all this, still believe the priests, that it is 
the offspring of heaven ? And if not, whence then came it, 
if not from God, but from the enemy of God and man ? 
Should not every friend of God and man therefore renounce 
it at once and forever? 

The papal doctors themselves grant, *^Th<it7iovelfies are 
subversive of Christianity, and that all who teach them miist 
fall under the divine anathema, and are the school of Salan.^'' 
Now, all their clergy are sivorn on the Gospels to believe 
and teach this, and other such novelties, to the day of their 
death. Doth it not then follow, that they are sworn to be 
of Satan's school, and 'to be accursed to the day of their 
20 



230 TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

death? How, then, can they be saved, except they escapo 
from this oath and all these novelties together, and submit 
themselves to Christ and his gospel alone ? 

Having thus, I again say, collated the testimony of the 
fathers for the first six hundred years of the Christian era, 
M^ith that of Christ and his apostles, and then that of the 
most eminent divines of the next thousand years with the 
former, and showed their perfect harmony on the subject of 
the eucharist, and now comparing with the whole the tes- 
timony of so many great Protestant churches and doctors ; 
who, not perverse, can avoid beholding the closeness of their 
agreement on this matter, not only with each other, but with 
all that went before, up to Christ and his aposdes; yes, and 
with his gospel at this moment? Here is no subtilty, no 
trick, but plain matter of fact. And when the strong lan- 
guage oY the church of England is noticed, " That on pain 
of expulsion, none of her sons must teach any doctrine but 
that of God only, as taught in the first ages after Christ," 
what can be more satisfactory? And to be perfectly in 
unison with Christ and be safe forever, what have they to 
do but scrupulously attend to it ? as their 6th and 20th arti- 
cles, saying, " They must have nothing opposed to God's 
word, nor must ever interpret it so as to make one part 
clash with another ;" I say, what need they more for salva- 
tion, but carefully to attend to this, and, avoiding the fault 
of the foolish virgins, rest not short of that ^'•inward grace 
that is a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness?" 
To all this all true Protestants agree. Now, when the dog- 
mas of the papal church are found opposed, not only to the 
Protestant churches, but by consequence to all antiquity, 
and to Christ and his apostles, the conclusion then is, that 
slie must either abandon this and all her strange doctrines, 
or sink like a millstone in the flood. And also the people 
must " come out of her" quickly, and join themselves to 
some of the Protestant churches, or make up their minds 
to sink with her eternally. For the Lord hath decreed it, 
"If the blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the 
ditch !" 

As I am not conscious of any thing unkind or unfair in 
what I have thus written, and as I only intended to defend 
the holy and old relioion of Christ, and do good to my fel- 



AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 231 

low-men, if any man shall give di fair and kind answer to 
my arguments, and show me truth — show me that I am 
mistaken — / hereby promise I shall be of his religion : for 
truth, not sect, party, or name, is what I regard. 

I am, Rev. sir, yours, in Christ, 

GIDEON OUSELEY. 
Limerick,, Feb. 1814. 
bih edit , Dublin^ June 4, 1827. 



LETTER VI. 

THE SACRinCE OF THE MASS 

ANTICHRISTIAN. 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Rev. Sir — This doctrine is thus stated by the council of 
Trent: " I profess that in the mass there is offered to God 
a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and 
for the dead."* 

The utter impossibility of transubstanliation having been 
demonstrated, this falls with it: for, if there was no proper 
change of the bread into the human body of Christ, there 
was no victim in that sacrament ; if not, that it sver was a 
propitiatory sacrifice was, and is, impossible ! Notwith- 
standing, as an examination of it may, probably, in the hand 
of God, do good to some, I shall take the liberty of giving 
it a separate consideration. 

1st. The apostles Peter and Paul tell us, that Christ suf- 
fered once, and only once, upon the cross, for the sins of 
mankind. "t Hence there could be no real piropitiation in 
the world, till that on the cross. Should they, then, or 
any other being, once prove there was, it would, according 
to Prop. 5, (p. 180,) contradict this Scripture record, and 
so tear up the very foundations of Christianity ; because 

* Profifeor pariter in missa offeri Deo, verum proprium et propitiato- 
num sacrifioium pro vivis et defunctis in Christo, in purgatorio detentis, 
nondum ad plenum purgatis. — Bulla Pii IV. Cone. Trid. sess. xxii. cap. 
22, can. \ — 3, sess. 25, Decret, de Purgatorio. 

t 1 Pet. iii. IS. Heb. vii. 27; ix. 12—14 ; x. 10, 13, 14. 

232 



THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, &C. 233 

the apostles would be found false witnesses, and if a reed 
sacrifice was made for sin before Christ's death, it would 
render his death and merits needless ; and so the founda 
lions of our religion would be destroyed. But the sacra- 
ment they call the mass, was before his death ; hence, the 
ijiass sacrifice must be subversive of Christianity, and there- 
fore be most impious and antichristian. This one plain 
argument, even without more, must, with every impartial 
mind, overturn, as in a moment, the sacrifice of the mass, 
and pull down the whole edifice connected with it. 

2. If there was no real propitiatory sacrifice before that 
on the cross, no sacrifice till then could be more than 
typical ; but the sacrament Christ gave, and which ye call 
the first mass, was before his death, therefore that sacra- 
ment could be no more than figurative. Hence, as no real 
propitiation was in that sacrament, and as none can be better 
than the first, then it follows, your sacrifice of the mass is 
an impossibility, and an impiety, and to teach it is anti- 
christian. 

3. "A real sacrifice cannot be without the death or dis- 
solution of the victim sacrificed."* But as Christ had not 
died at the time of the first mass or sacrament, nor dies in 
any mass, hence can no such sacrifice be in any mass. 
Therefore, any such sacrifice, being impossible, is antichris- 
tian. " But," says Dr. Challoner, " there is in the mass a 
real destruction.^^ Of what? — why, "o/" the bread and 
wine, by consecration.^'' What shameless mockery, false- 
hood, and imposition are here ! Are bread and wine a living 
victim, slain or destroyed in this sacrament? That any 
rational creature should be duped by such palpable false- 
hoods is lamentable. 

4. Did Christ offer himself once a real sacrifice in his 
sacrament, or first mass, as ye call it ? He did, or he did 
not. If he did, when he oflfered himself afterwards on the 
cross, he must then have offered himself twice really ! or 
the mass sacrifice is false. But if he did not offer himself 
in that first mass, why, then, does the priest offer him in his 
mass ? He cannot answer. Hence, such mass sacrifice is 
unwarranted, impious, and antichristian. 

Thus reason proves that the mass sacrifice is necessarily 

* Sacrificium verum et reale — Verum et realem occisionem exegit. 
Bellarrain. de Missa, lib. 2, c. 27. 

30* 



234 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 

subversive of Christianity, and is highly antichristian. But 
we shall behold the judgment of the fathers also. 

1. St. Augustine writes, "That which all men call the 
sacrifice is the aign oi the true sacrificed ^ 

2. St. Chrysostom — "We all offer the same sacrifice, 
fiaT-.'kQv 8s ava/.Lvrjativ, or rather the commemoration thereof."! 

3. St. Ambrose — "We indeed offer, but it is to make a 
remembrance of his death.":]: 

Again, (1. 4, c. 5, de Sacram.) ''Fac nobis hanc ohlationem 
ascriptam quod est figura Domini nostri, Jesu Christi.'' 

" The priest saith, ' Make this oblation applicable, ration- 
al, acceptable, which is ihe figure of the body and blood of 
our Lord Jesus Christ.' " 

4. Fulgentius — " In this sacrifice of bread and wine, 
which is offered throughout the whole Catholic church, 
there is a thanksgiving and remembrance of the flesh of 
Christ which he offered for us, and of the blood which he 
shed for us."§ 

5. Peter Lombard, master of the sentences, writes, " That 
Christ was only once truly and properly offered in sacrifice, 
and that in the sacrifice called the oblation, there is a re- 
membrance and representation of the true sacrifice which 
was once made, and that in it he is daily, but sacramentally 
slain." II 

6. Lyra saith, " If thou sayest the sacrifice of the altar is 
daily offered in the church, it must be answered, there is not 
a reiteration of the sacrifice, but a daily commemoration of 
that sacrifice that was offered on the cross. ^ 

7. Cardinal Bellarmine records it, "That the oblation 
that is made after the consecration, does not belong to the 

* Illud quod ab ominbus appellator sacrificium est signuna veri sacri- 
ficii. Civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 5. 

«j- Tandem hostiam offerimus, vel potius recordationem ipsius. Chrys. 
Heb. 10, Horn. 17. 

t OfTerimus quidera, sed recordationem fiicientes mortis ejus. Ambr. 
in Heb. 10. 

§ Sacrificium panis vini ecclesia catholica per universum orbem terrce 

on cessat offeri — in isto sacrificio gratiarum, actio et commemoratio est 

i-'-arnis Christi quam pro nobis obtulit. De Fide ad Petr. Diacon. c. 19. 

II Vocari sacrificium quia memoria est et representatio veri sacrificii 
quod semel factum est, &c. Pet. Lamb. Sent. lib. 4, dist. 12. 

^ Sed si adhuc diceres, sacrificium alternis quotidie offertur in ecclesia, 
&c., Lyra in Heb. 10. 



ANTICHRISTIAN. 235 

essence of the sacrifice, because our Lord made no such ob- 
lation, neither did his apostles, from the first, as is demon- 
strated from Gregory."* 

8. Saith Dr. Synge, Archbishop of Tuam, " Produce, if 
you can, one single passage out of the fathers, for more 
than 600 years after Christ, wherein they assert the neces- 
sity of believing any other true, proper, and propitiatory 
sacrifice of Christ, but that on the cross alone, and it shall 
be considered, if it has not been fully done so already." 
Rejoinder to Dr. Nary, p. 200. 

9. The council of Trent saith, "When our Lord said, 
-tovto Ttoifiti, ' Hoc facite,' ^Do this,'' he ordained his apostles 
priests." Sess. 22, cap. 1, can. 1. But if, by these words, 
the apostles were made priests when they received the bread, 
as the council declares they were; then, by the same words, 
they were made priests afterwards at the delivery of the cup ! 
Hence, if made priests at all by this /orm of words, they 
were twice made ; but if not twice, then surely not once, 
nor at all. Therefore, they were never made priests ; for, 
sacrifices being ended by the one great sacrifice, the office 
of priests to sacrifice must have also ended forever. Again, 
since Christ did not then, nor till on the cross, offer himself, 
and that by these words he gave them power of doing only 
as far as he did, when the apostles were not made priests, 
having no 'proper sacrifice to offer forever, and that the 
typical had ceased, how then have the papal priests thereby, 
or therefrom, a power of offering Christ in sacrifice in the 
mass ? By the phrase "i)o this,'''' was therefore no com- 
mand given to make priests, or to qffier sacrifice in the mass, 
but only to commemorate with thanksgiving his passion, 
and ^'' show forth his death till he come,'''' as St. Paul says, 
1 Cor. xi. 26. To assume such a power, then, and to offer 
such sacrifices, is ignorance, or is great wickedness and im- 
posture. 

Lastly, These ivords were directed to the apostles only, 
or to all Christians in general. If to the former only, then 
no Christian is bound to receive the sacraments in either kind, 
or at all, but priests only; or if to the latter, all Christians 

* Oblatio quse sequitur consecrationera, ad integritalem, sacrificii per- 
tinet, non ad essentiam, quod jion ad essentiam, probatur, tarn ex eo quod 
Domiiius earn oblationem non adhibuit, imo nee apostoli in principio, ut 
ex Gregorio demonstratum est. Lib. 1. de Missa, c. 27, § 5. 



236 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 

were by them made sacrificing priests, or they were not ; if 
not, then the apostles were not made priests, of course. 

Here is abundant evidence that for many ages the sacra- 
ment was not beUeved a real, but a figurative sacrifice of 
Christ's death, and of thanks and praise. 

Dr. Challoner and your other learned divines, in trying 
to extricate themselves from these pressing difficulties, resort 
to a truly curious contrivance. 

" Our Saviour," saith a modern advocate, " in leaving to 
us his body and blood under two distinct kinds, instituted 
not only 2. sacrament but sacrifice, 2l commemorative sacri- 
fice, distinctly showing his passion and death until he come. 
For, as the sacrifice of the cross was performed by a distinct 
effusion of his blood, so is that sacrifice commemorated in 
this of the altar by a distinction of the symbols. Jesus, 
therefore, is there given, not only to us, hut for us ; and 
the church is thereby enriched with a true, proper, 2ind pro- 
pitiatory sacrifice, usually termed the mass ; propitiatory 
we say, because representing in a lively manner the passion 
and death of our Lord, it is peculiarly pleasing to our eternal 
Father, and thus more effectually applies to us the all-suffi- 
cient merits of the sacrifice of the cross." Barrington's 
Faith of the Catholics, prop. v. p. 200. 

Dr. Challoner, too, labours to bewilder his readers, and 
make his escape. "The sacrifice of the cross and the 
sacrifice of the altar," saith he, " is one and the same sacri- 
fice, for the victim is the selfsame Jesus Christ, and the 
priest also who offers the sacrifice is the self-same Jesus 
Christ, because he officiates as his vicegerent and in his 
person ! The only difference is in the manner of offerinor, 
and that the sacrifice of the cross, wherein he realbj died 
and redeemed us, is a bloody sacrifice; and that of the 
mass, where that death is represented, is unbloody and ap- 
plicatory, daily applying to us the virtue of that of the 
cross." Catholic Christian, pp. 67, 69, 73. 

Par nobile fratrum! A noble pair of doctors, divines, 
and champions ! What confusion and self-contradiction, in 
trying to make night day, falsehood truth, and lead the 
foolish astray ! And yet, sir, they are celebrated advocates, 
" for Brutus is an honourable man !" But did they believe 
a sentence of all they said ? No, truly. 

The one says, " The sacrifice of the cross is commemo- 



ANTIC HRISTI AN. 237 

rated by that of the altar, and represents it in a lively man- 
ner, therefore it is 2. propitiatory sacrifice left to the faiih- 
ful, even the mass, to enrich them." So, then, what strongly 
represents a man is the man himself! and what in a lively 
manner represents the dying Saviour, is the identical bleed- 
ing, dying Saviour himself! And the other uses just the 
same jargon, only he thought it the best way to tell a bold 
lie, or a bundle of them at once, and try his fate ! He saw 
he had no other way but this, or quit the ground and give 
up his cause. And the same path did Dr. Milner take ; 
" The sacrifice of the cross," says Challoner, " and that of 
the altar is one and the same, for the victim is the self-same 
Jesus Christ, and the priest is the same, because he acts for 
him, only with some difference in the manner of offering," 
&c. So then, " Christ dead and a wafer, Christ and the 
officiating priest, are one and the same," &c. So then 
there is every difference, and there is none, and therefore 
the sacrifice of the mass is properly propitiatory ! — believe 
this, ye faithful, or perish! ! ! 

The apostle says, " Without shedding of blood, or a 
bloody sacrifice, there is no expiation — no remission of 
sins." Heb. x. 22. But " the mass sacrifice is unbloody 
and applicatory''^ only, hence not expiatory. So your so- 
lemn oath on the Book of God binds you to believe and 
teach, " that the mass sacrifice is expiatory,'''' and yet it is 
not expiatory, but " applicatory" only. Thus out of your 
own mouth are ye convicted. 

i Besides this, the business of a real propitiatory sacrifice 
is not application to men, but oblation to God, by the vica- 
rious suffering and death of the victim to atone for sin, that 
the guilt and punishment due to sin may be removed and 
cleansed away, as say Turrentinus, (Tract, p. 200,) and 
Bellarmine. But the mass sacrifice can be neither expia- 
tory to God, for nothing is slain therein, nor applicatory to 
men, for that is not the business of a proper expiatory sacri- 
fice. Hence it is good for neither the one thing nor the 
other. 

St. Paul tells us, "That the legal sacrifices, because they 
were imperfect, were often repeated ; but the sacrifice of 
Christ on the cross was infinitely perfect, and perfects be- 
lievers, and must never be repeated." Heb. x. 11, 14 
Hence, a sacrifice which is continually repeated cannot be 



2S8 THE SACRIFICE or THE MASS 

propitiatory ; but the mass is offered daily, therefore it is 
not propitiatory. To offer any propitiatory sacrifice after 
that of Christ, is plainly to pronounce the apostle was mis- 
taken, and that the cross sacrifice was not infinitely perfect, 
for that it needed this of the mass to be added to it daily ; 
to say which, all must allow, is blasphemy. But the mass 
sacrifice is offered daily as expiatory, therefore they who 
offer it are necessarily guilty of contradicting the apostle, 
and of blasphemy against Christ's infinitely perfect sacrifice ; 
and opposition to Christ is to become antichrist. 

Again, he affirms, " Where remission of sin is, there is 
no more offering for sin." Heb. x. 18. Hence, if the 
apostle spake truly, there must be no more expiatory offer- 
ing forever. Either, then, the mass expiatory sacrifice is 
unnecessary, and must not be offered, or the apostle spoke 
falsely. To offer it, therefore, is to declare the aposde a 
liar, and the Scriptures also false, and so to subvert Chris- 
tianity. Hence the mass sacrifice is plainly and unavoid- 
ably subversive of Christianity, and is therefore necessarily 
a system of antichristianity. 

But if there was no real proper sacrifice but Christ's 
death once on the cross, and your oath is that in the mass 
there is a proper sacrifice; if then there is a real sacrifice 
in the mass, and that the first mass was before Christ's 
death, then your oath goes to say, that Christ's blood was 
shed at the sacrament before it was shed on the cross, and 
that he was really dead on the cross in that sacrament while 
yet he was not dead, but was alive, eating it with his apos- 
tles ! That is, he ate himself and drank himself, and each 
of his apostles ate him and then drank him ; and he offered 
himself in sacrifice, and so shed his blood and was dead, 
and then walked out into the garden with his disciples, and 
sung a hymn and prayed, and was apprehended, and con- 
demned, and offered himself on the cross ; and therefore 
the sacrifice of the cross really took place at night, before 
it took place the day after ! O, the fearful absurdities of the 
mass ! ! O ye angelical divines, is this all true ? 

Again. Should a man say that his sacrament is better 
than Christ's, would you not call him a blasphemer? But 
your mass, ye swear, is truly propitiatory , and his, it is 
proved, was not so ; yours, then, must be better ; which to 
say is blasphemy. What now must be said of a doctrine 



ANTICHRISTIAN. 239 

that thus necessarily involves its advocates in palpable per- 
jury and blasphemy, and thus throws them into the ditch 
forever? With Cardinal Perron must not all men cry out, 
"/(f is a monster!" Whether all men should cleave to 
this monster or fly from it, let each one now judge. Ob- 
viate these arguments who can. 

Objection. " But several of the ancient fathers call th 
eucharist an oblation, a sacrifice, (Justin Martyr, Irenseus 
Chrysostom, Augustine, &c.,) and the same is proved by 
scripture texts, Mai. i. 10, 11, Heb. xiii. 10, and Acts xiii. 2. 
"As they ministered to the Lord and fasted," where there 
is an evident mistranslation, for the original Greek is 
"y.EtfovpyoDVT'wj^," "as they were sacrificing,'*^ &c. 

I reply, that neither these fathers, nor yet these texts, are 
at all in point to prove d^wy propitiatory sacrifice. I confess 
that the Scriptures do say sacrifices are to be offered unto 
God. Phil. iv. 19. Heb. xiii. 15, 16. Rom. xii. 1. Yet 
no expiatory sacrifice, save the death of Christ alone, is 
found therein. 2d. That these fathers did frequently use 
the words oblation, victim, immolation, sacrifice of the eu- 
charist, unbloody sacrifice, &c. But in what sense ? not 
properly propitiatory, but as signs only of that great sacri- 
fice, and therefore taking their names, as saith St. Augus- 
tine, — " If the sacraments had not a resemblance of those 
things of which they be sacraments, they would not be 
sacraments at all ; but from this resemblance they com- 
monly take the names of the things which they resemble : 
as, when Easter is drawing near, we say. To-morrow or the 
day after is the Lord's passion, when he suffered many 
years ago, and that his passion is never to be but once ; so 
on the Lord's day we say. To-day our Lord rose again, 
when it was many years ago. Why is nobody so foolish 
as to charge us with lying? But we call those days so, as 
they resemble those on which those things were done. Was 
not Christ once immolated in himself? And yet in a sacra- 
ment he is immolated by the people, not on Easter day 
only, but daily; nor does he therefore lie who, being asked, 
makes answer that Christ is immolated." Hence, as Eas- 
ter Sunday is called the resurrection of Christ, so the " eu- 
charist is called the immolation of Christ." Ep. 23, ad 
Bonif. Again, " That which all men call the sacrifice is 
ihe sign oi ihe sacrifice.'' Civ. Dei, I 10, c 5 



240 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS 

2. These texts from Scripture have nothing to do with a 
proper expiatory sacrifice ; nor is the criticism on ?vftroup- 
yowT'coi/ correct : for, besides that the Latin of it, minis- 
trantibus, in Montanus's Testament, agrees with the Pro- 
testant translation, ministering ; that interpretation, sacri- 
ficing, if it meant sacrificing priests, would go to make 
people, princes, and angels, all, sacrificing priests ! 

The apostle tells the saints at Rome, (xv. 27,) o^tL7.ov5i 
xai ev rot,g aapxixoi,^ Xstrorpyjj^at avtoi^, " that they ought tO 
minister (not sacrifice) their carnal things to the poor 
saints in Jerusalem ;" and in xiii. 6, he calls the civil rulers, 
7.n-tovpyoi Qsov, " God's ministers,'''' not sacrificing priests 
surely. Besides, \vhere in the New Testament is the Lord's 
supper called -kittovpyio.l Hence, the mass sacrifice has no 
place in the Scriptures. Men must be hard set, indeed, 
when they are obliged to resort to such sorry shifts to 
prop themselves up. 

But supposing for a moment, that some texts could be 
found, mentioning a proper mass sacrifice, and that the 
apostles and angefs of heaven, with all the fathers that ever 
lived, should declare the same ; yet, till they could first 
prove, that all the prophecies which so fully describe the 
coming, person, character, works, sufferings, and death of 
Christ, and all the accounts these apostles formerly gave of 
his birth, life, preaching, miracles, (fee, did all really belong 
to a cake of bread and a cup of wine ! as well as to Christ, 
and consequently that all those prophets, and the Scrip- 
tures too, were false ! they could not be believed. Hence, 
the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass is incapable of being 
proved by any testimony or power whatever ! 

To close — seeing it is plain, 1st. As there never was any 
propitiatory sacrifice for sin on the earth but one, even 
Chris fs death once on the cross, and that the sacrament 
he gave before it could not be propitiatory; 2d. That he 
made no sacrificial oblation of himself at the time of that 
sacrament ; consequently, that the mass sacrifice is impos- 
sible: and, 3d. That no advocate, however great his abilities, 
has been ever able to defend it: for, being itself an impos- 
sibility, to them it was impossible, and therefore it has 
])lunged them, every one, into the vortex of absurdity, nay, 
into the ditch : — should not every man, then, who cares for 
liis soul, as it must in the end ruin him, give it up at once ? 



ANTICHRISTIAN. 241 

The opposition is j)lain, and the result to be dreaded ! 
Clirist or the mass mrst fall. 

Surely, sir, it must bs far indeed from pleasing to any 
feeling- mind, thus to pursue this and such subjects, and 
open them up to public view ; but a sense of duty to the 
King of kings and to his people, multitudes of whom are 
seduced, and likely to be ruined forever by these fallacious 
doctrines, must be paramount with every man, whose eyes 
God hath opened to behold these enormities, to every other 
consideration, to impel him to sound the alarm, that all 
concerned may escape for their lives. For it will not be 
denied, that any doctrines that stand opposed to Christ are 
accursed, and that they who follow such must fall. 

When I look, sir, at the day of my death, at Jesus Christ 
our Lord, whom I am most certainly to meet ; at that great 
white throne before which I and my fellow-men must one 
day stand, to receive according to the deeds done in the 
body ; at the books opened, and those deeds brought forth 
to public view ; at the separation made between the right- 
eous and the wicked, and the awful and irrevocable sen- 
tence that shall consign them to their several destinies ; and 
at that fearful eternity that is to follow : when I survey all 
these certainties, it is little wonder, that all my powers 
should be alarmed before that God who sees me every 
moment and marks my every step. When I open my 
Bible, sir, and see the following and such like declarations 
of my great Judge, against false doctrines, idolatry, and 
wickedness ; " Though we, or an angel from heaven, 
preach any other gospel to you than that we have preached 
unto you, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8. " Add thou not 
unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a 
liar.*' Prov. xxx. 6. Deut. xii. 32. " If any man shall 
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues 
that are written in this book." Rev. xxii. 18. " Thou 
shalt not suffer sin upon thy neighbour: thou shalt in any 
wise reprove him." Lev. xix. 17. I say, when I behold 
all these warning truths now issuing to me and my fellow 
mortals from that lofty throne, where we shall yet most as- 
suredly stand to receive our final doom ; and when I con- 
sider, God knows, that I know these and such passages, 
and that I feel I am accountable for them, what then is my 
duty? Is it not to obey and perish? Hence, sir, you will 
21 



242 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 

clearly see, that it is not ill-naturedly to give pain to any 
man, I write, but it is by fair and friendly argument, to 
lead men out of error unto God, that they may be saved ; 
and that my own soul perish not. And now, having ho- 
nestly and faithfully thus far discharged this duty, as I could, 
I am, Rev. Sir, your sincere friend in the Lord, 

GIDEON OUSELEY. 
5t7i edit.t Dublin, June 7, 1827. 



LETTER VII. 

THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Rev. Sir, — Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice 
OF THE Mass, being proved impious perversions of truth, 
the Worship of the Host, being a kindred dogma, must 
of course fall with them. In discussing this subject I shall 
first adduce the decree for this vs^orship ; 2d, lay down 
some preparatory propositions ; 3d, examine this decree ; 
4th, advance a few arguments to show that this worship is 
absurd, idolatrous, and also of modern invention. 

the decree for the worship of the host. 

" This council teacheth, and openly and simply professes, 
that in the pure and holy sacrament of the eucharist, after 
the consecration of the bread and wine, is our Lord Jesus 
Christ, true God and man, truly, really, and substantially 
contained, under the appearance of these visible things : 
nor are these matters self-contradictory, that this our Sa- 
viour always sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, 
according to the natural manner of existing ; and that not- 
withstanding he is in many other places sacramentally pre- 
sent to us with his substance — there is therefore no room 
to doubt but that the faithful of Christ should adore his 
most holy sacrament with that highest worship due to the 
true God, according to the constant usage in the Catholic 
church. Nor is it the less to be thus adored, that it was 
instituted by Christ our Lord to be eaten." 



244 WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

"If any one shall say that this holy sacrament should 
not be adored, nor solemnly carried about in processions, 
nor held up publicly to the people to adore it, or that its 
worshippers are idolaters, let him be accursed."* 

PROPOSITIONS. 

I. Jehovah, our God, is possessed of all possible perfec- 
tions, and is not only the great Author of our being, ever 
present with us and ready to do us good, but also from him 
alone doth our every blessing, in time and eternity, pro- 
ceed ; it is therefore the duty of all his rational creatures to 
delight in, worship, and obey him. 

II. All worship and service to him must, to be pleasing 
to him, be supreme^ hence, it must be agreeable to his 
own divine ivill ; if contrary thereto, it cannot be divirie 
worship, but will-worship — superstition, and therefore 
must be sinful: so saith the Lord, "In vain do they wor- 
ship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." 
Mark vii. 7—9. 

III. His divine will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures : 
(if not, it cannot be known, and then no worship, properly 
divine, can be given to him,) and all faith and obedience, to 
be divine and pleasing to his will, must be regulated by the 
Scripture where that will is revealed, otherwise it must be 
vain will- worship — superstition. 

IV. Divine worship, faith, and obedience, regulated by 
the Scriptures, are pleasing to God, and must, therefore, be 

* Decret. de Sanctiss. Euchakist. Sacram. — Principio docet 
sancta synodus, et aperte ac simpliciter profitetur, in almo sancto eucha- 
ristiae sacramento, post panis et vini consecrationem, Dominum nos- 
trum Jesum Christum, verum Deum atque hominem, vere, realiter, ac 
substanlialiter sub specie illarum rerum sensibilium contineri ; nee enim 
haec inter se pugnant, ut ipse Salvator noster semper ad dextram Patris 
in coelis assident, juxta modum existendi naturatera ; et ut multis nihilo- 
minus aliis in locis sacramentaliter presens sua substantia nobis adsit, 
&c. Nullus itaque dubitandi locus reiinquitur, quin omnes Christi 
fideles, pro more in Catholica ecclesia semper recepto, latriaj cultum qui 
vero Deo debetur, huic sanctissimo sacramento in venerations exhibeant ; 
neque enim ideo minus est adorandum, quod fuerit a Christo Domino 
ut sumatur institutum. Si quis dixerit non solemnitur circumgestan- 
dum in processionibus, vel non publice ut adoretur proponendum, aut 
ejus adorotores esse idolatras, anathema. Lib. Con. Trid. sess. xiii. c 
— 5, can. 6 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 245 

the liue and safe way to his kingdom and glory: any wor- 
ship which refuses to be so regulated is vain superstition, 
and must lead to an opposite end. 

V. All divine or religious worship is wholly due to 
Jehovah — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Luke iv. 7, 
8. If not wholly, not at all ; for any reason that could take 
away a part, must take away the whole. If, therefore, 
wholly due to him, then can no part thereof, however small, 
be given away from him without injustice and destruction. 
Gal. V. 21. 

VI. When the devil, tempting Christ, offered him all the 
power and glory of this world, if he would but fall down 
and worship him, he did not assume to be the creator, but 
a creature only. Hence, his chief ambition evidently was 
to have some religious worship given to the creature. 

VII. Christ's rebuke, " Get thee behind me, Satan : for 
it is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord-^ thy God, and 
him only shalt thou serve," (Luke iv. 8,) makes it clear, 
that men, to be saved, must obey the written word, nor 
give any divine or religious worship to any creature, but to 
God only. 

VIII. To give any religious worship to a creature is to 
make it an idol, and is clearly diabolical worship — idolatry ; 
but to give ALL, or the highest divine worship to any crea- 
ture, is to do even more than the devil required, and to 
commit the highest possible idolatry ! But should a man 
be found bound by oath, to give to any creature supreme 
virorship, to the day of his death, is it not equivalent to a 
covenant with Satan — to an agreement with death and hell, 
(Isa. xxviii. 15,) to be damned? 

IX. Civil worship, or honour, is to be given to whom it 
is due, (Matt. ix. 18. Rom. xiii. 7;) but not where not 
due ; not to beasts, as being inferior to us ; not to dumb 
images or any thing made by man, as being inferior to 
beasts made by God. Hence can no worship whatever be 
given to beasts or things inanimate. 

We shall now proceed to consider this infallible decree. 
It teacheth, 1. *' That by the priest's consecration, the sacra- 
ment contains Jesus Christ himself corporally, wholly ! 
2. That for Christ to be corporally and naturally always in 
heaven at the right hand of the Father, and to be corporally, 
sacramentally, and substantially present to us, in manv 
21* 



246 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

Other places, is no contradiction. 3. That the sacrament 
thus containing him must be supremely adored as God him- 
self! 4. That the Catholic church always so adored it! 
5. That such adoration is no idolatry ! 6. That though 
Christ did not institute it to be adored but eaten, yet this 
must be no objection to such adoration ! 7. That he who 
dissents from any part of all this is accursed." And seven 
thunders uttered their voices ! That here we have seven 
blasphemous falsehoods we shall quickly find. It is very 
obvious that in this most holy decree are indeed these seven 
propositions ; and that on these seven pillars doth the whole 
papal edifice rest, as on its proper basis, insomuch that if 
they be but removed, down must it instantly totter to the 
ground. Now I am. persuaded, and in my conscience be- 
lieve, that no informed person alive can believe a single 
position of the whole, nor can hold them one hour without 
casting off Christ, his gospel, and all truth and salvation 
together ! "When preparing my last edition I was so alarmed 
at the manifest disregard to our Lord here inculcated, neque 
enim ideo, &c., that I hastened to take it to expose its great 
wickedness to my countrymen, in order to awake them 
from their stupidity if possible ; btlt I shall now proceed in 
order. 

Since no Christian can believe God can lie, or that Christ 
and his apostles were wrong, and as the dogma, that Christ 
was corporally in his sacrament, involves instant self-con- 
tradiction, as we have copiously proved, so can no informed 
pope, priest, or other person believe that Christ was ever 
contained in the eucharist. For as Friar Hays owns, (in 
Gallizin. and in Serm. on Transub. p. 22,) "A self-contra- 
diction is impossible to God," because it is a falsehood ; 
and hence, " Christ could not make his body be in the sacra- 
ment and not in the sacrament at the same moment." This 
simple admission destroys popery at once. For, in the 
first place, as Christ was not one instant out of his apos- 
tles' sight from his blessing to their eating the sacrament; 
and it is granted, " he could not be in their sight and oi.t 
of it, and out of the bread and in it, at the same time," then 
it follows he was not in the sacrament at all. 2. As it is 
most clear from the gospel, &c., that the term, body, was 
taken in several senses, and that he did not say of the 
bread, This is my human body, but left common sense to 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 247 

discern which it was he meant, then is it most clear that 
his human body was never in the sacrament. 3. His 
apostles worshipped himself, but did not worship the sacra- 
ment: hence they did not believe he was there, and, being 
inspired, they were not mistaken ; therefore, he was not in 
the eucharist; and lastly, as the council even owns, 
** Christ gave the sacrament to be eaten, not worshipped," 
therefore he did not believe himself to be contained therein ; 
and hence, as no man believes Christ was mistaken or 
wrong, so can no informed man ever believe that Christ 
was ever in any host, or that he that worships it is not 
wrong. 

The first pillar, and chief, thus proved a falsehood and 
destroyed, the rest must share the same fate. The 2d. 
*' That Christ is always corporally present in heaven, and 
corporally present in many places on earth," that is, 
wherever priests consecrate wafers, and thus cause him to 
be contained in every wafer ! as this proposition contains a 
heap of self-contradictions, so is it clearly a heap of false- 
hoods. 3d. " That the supreme worship of God himself 
must be given to the host." To divinely adore any, save 
God only, is acknowledged " damnable idolatry ;" but the 
wafer is not God, nor did any apostle ever adore it ; hence, 
to say it is right to adore it, is a most wicked falsehood. 
4th. " The church of God always adored it." Then either 
the church of Christ, that for hundreds of years did not 
adore the eucharist in any way, was not the church of God, 
or the council hath told a most notorious falsehood ! 5th. 
" To adore it and carry it about, and hold it up to be adored, 
is no idolatry;" but it is proved such adoration is most 
damnable idolatry. Hence, here is another lie. 6th. Neque 
enim ideo minus est adorandum, (fee. " Nobody must be 
discouraged from such adoration, in that Christ gave it to 
be eaten only." 

This surpasses in wickedness all that went before ! be- 
cause it inculcates immediate and deliberate contempt of 
Jesus Christ's authority and example, and abject submis- 
sion to the pope and his clergy, and therefore the eternal 
destruction of those teaching it, and adopting it ! It was 
clearly framed to meet an anticipated objection. The pious 
Christian might naturally enough hesitate at this strange 
adoration and say, I wish to follow my Saviour's sacred 



548 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

example and precepts ; but I could never learn that he 
worshipped the host, or ordered it ; or that any of the 
apostles ever did so ; and surely they were right ; to do it 
then must be wrong, and therefore I am afraid to adore the 
host. The council's reply is, Neque enim ideo, ^-c. " You 
are not to hesitate or fear, because that no apostle wor- 
shipped it, nor Christ commanded it; the church commands 
you to do so; that is enough for you, you must obey the 
church ! ! !" What ! can that be the church of Christ, that 
thus treats with contempt him, and his example, and apos- 
des ? that sets aside him, his commandments, and gospel, 
and substitutes her own, and thus leads the people in the 
broad road to destruction ! Popes, cardinals, and doctors 
have not been ashamed to justify this wicked contempt of 
and rebellion against God, under the pretence of " the 
church having from Christ the power of the keys of hea- 
ven," calling it "a dispensation ;" under which cloak they 
thus practise on credulity, and fill their coffers. O wicked- 
ness unparalleled ! as if God could give men a license to 
contradict himself.* O fatal credulity in the laity who be- 

* Hear Pope Innocent III. " Secuncfera plenitudinem potestatis de 
jure, supra jus, possumus dispensare." 

"We may, according to the plenitude of our power, dispense with the 
law and above the law." Decret. de concess. praebend. tit. 3. cap. pro- 
posuit. 

And in lib. i. Gregory IX. decret. ix. tit. 7, cap. 3, is an epistle of 
Innocent III. thus : " Non enim homo sed Deus separat quos Romanus 
pontifex, (qui non puri hominis, sed veri Dei vicem gerit in terris.) 
Ecclesiarum necessitate dissolvit" Cap. Quanto personam. 

" Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not man that 
separateth them but God ; for the pope holdeth the place on earth, not 
simply of a man, but of true God." 

Saith the Gloss: "Et est verus Deus et verus homo: gerens veri Dei 
vicem. Unde dicitur habere cceleste ai-bitrum," &c. 

" The pope is true God and true man, holding God's place, where- 
fore he hath celestial government, and he can therefore change the na- 
ture of things, by applying the substance of one thing to another, and of 
nothing he can make something : for in matters that he will have come 
to pass, his will is his reason, and no man may say unto him. What 
dost thou ] for he has power to dispense above the law, and of injus- 
tice to make justice." Gloss etiam aliquid. tit. de hseret. cum Christus. 

Andradius saith : " Liquet eos minime errasse, qui dicunt Romanura 
pontilicem posse nonnunquam in legibus dispensare a Paulo et primis 
quatuor conciliis. Minime vero majores nostri religione et pietate excel- 
lentes apostolorum haec, et quam plurima alia decreta refigere in 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 249 

lieve it, and tamely submit to it. Who, after perusing all 
this, and these impious doctrines below written, a heap of 
which may be seen in Du Molin, part ii. p. 29, and other 
writers, can forbear being filled with not only astonishment 
but great indignation at such superlative effrontery and 
wickedness, under the guise of religion ? The doctrine of 
their rubrick, which has been noticed, (p. 45,) " That 
Christ can be lost, or run off with and eaten by mice, or 
swallowed by priests and vomited, and eaten again by 
them," may be contemplated as the ridiculous offspring of 
fatuity — of a disordered brain ; but here we have wicked- 
ness surpassing every thing, even atheism itself. Here we 
see the deadly root of what we daily witness — opposition 
to God's sacred book, and to every institution that would 
promote his glory and tend to enlighten, purify, and exalt 
his offspring to their true dignity ; while obedience to the 
church, to the pope, and his priests, and strict attention to 
their doctrines are vigilantly inculcated ; and hence the 
daring removal of the second commandment and nearly the 
fourth, and rending the tenth into two, the abrogating the 
half of the Lord's supper, having worship in an unknown 
tongue, &c., &c. all flatly opposed to God. 

We must not, however, in our haste and just indignation, 
forget to return to the council's crowning proposition — the 
seventh, * That whosoever shall say that in this decree 
there is any thing wrong, he is accursed I !" This secures 
all ! So then, we have proved incontestably, that the six 
propositions of this decree we have examined are six false- 
hoods the most notorious and audacious possible to be con- 

animum induxissent nisi intellexissent," &c. Andrad. lib. 2, de Trid. 
Fid. 

" It is manifest that those have not erred, who say, that the Roman 
pontiff can sometimes dispense with obeying the law of the apostle Paul 
and of the four first councils ; nay, our ancestors, men of great piety 
and religion, have broken and annulled many decrees op tub 

APOSTLES ! ! !" 

Cardinal Bellarmine writes — " Si papa erraret in praecipiendo vitia, 
vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur, ecclesia credere vitia este bona et vir- 
tutes mala, nisi vellet contra conscentiam peccare." Bell. L. 4, de Pont, 
f. cap. 5. 

" Should the pope err in commanding vices, and forbidding virtues, 
the church should be bound to believe that the vices were good and the 
virtues bad, unless she would sin against conscience ! ! !" 



250 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

ceived, all combining to inculcate the highest possible 
wickedness — the crime above all others most ruinous to 
man and insulting to the Almighty, namely, to give that 
supreme adoration which is due to him only, to a priest- 
made Christ, that a mouse may run off with and eat up, 
or the priest himself eat and vomit up, and eat again ! So 
then, all who will not believe notorious lies, commit idolatry, 
insult the God of heaven, and of course plunge themselves 
body and soul into the lake of fire, are pronounced cursed 
and damned, by the pope, (Christ's friend and vicar!) 
and by his church ! Hear this, ye Roman Catholics ! Hear 
it with both your ears, and be wise ! 

Methinks, to the veriest simpleton, the plain language of 
the council is briefly this, " Knowing well that Christ 
could not contradict himself, or lie, and that as there was 
no proper sacrifice for sin on earth when he gave the 
eucharist, there was therefore no proper sacrifice in it, nor 
consequently was his human body and blood in anywise 
visibly or invisibly therein : nor of course was there any 
change of the bread into that body, nor was it adored on 
any account, but eaten only ; and as no subsequent sacra- 
ment could excel it, no eucharist forever can therefore be 
adored without idolatry and certain perdition ; that all this 
is as surely true as that God cannot lie, we all perfectly 
know ; yet we must teach the very contrary of the whole ; 
yes, being sworn on the Gospels to do so till death, we 
must thus teach, and all our clergy forever must thus teach, 
and by all means must pronounce all who dissent and re- 
fuse to believe us accursed heretics, who, being out of the 
church and obstinate, cannot be saved !" Who of them can 
resist this statement? and who, not an idiot, will deny it? 
So then, this clergy, after the lapse of so many ages, do to 
this hour tread in these very steps, teaching these false- 
hoods for truths, and pronouncing those heretics who resist 
or reject them, never forgetting Luther above all.* 

* We must again advert to Luther. This council, sworn, as we see 
it was, to teach all those falsehoods, pronounced another on Luther, as 
an " heresiarch." See Rule ii. De lib. prohib., passim ; also the pope's 
bull, In coena Domini, cursing " all Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussites, or 
by whatsoever name or sect they, who recede obstinately from obedi- 
ence to the Bishop of Rome, may be called ; as also all who in anywise 
favour, receive, or defend them." See the appendix at the end of this 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 251 

Why was Luther called an arch-heretic and follower of 
Satan? one may inquire. From the documents that lie 
before us, and from facts too strong to be denied, what Lu- 

book. We have seen the testimony of the famous Erasmus, that can 
did Romanist, and of others (p. 224,) who, it seems, beUeved the council, 
as much as I do, while Dr. Milner, in our days, and before him, Pastorini, 
who said, " he got the key of the bottomless pit," and others have, to 
their honour, been quite furious against him. But we shall now add 
other testimonies that cannot be contested, while Monsieur Villars's book, 
that stood the test of the public scrutiny of the most learned in France, 
who awarded it the prize, remains, with those, fearless of contradiction. 

Villars (p. 64) states, in agreement with Erasmus — "Dr. Maclaine, 
in his translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 23, ed. 
1803, fully proves in a note, that the slanders forged against Luther by 
Cochlaeus, Paul Sarpi, and others, were refuted by De Priero and Palla- 
vinci, the mortal enemies of Luther." 

Ibid. " Luther devoted all his intellectual powers to the success of 
reviving letters, watched their progress, and rejoiced at the victory of 
ancient languages over the inquisitors. He had also acquired celebrity 
by some good productions of this description. Supported by an indefa- 
tigable zeal and a wonderful memory, Luther acquired the most perfect 
acquaintance with the sacred Scriptures, the fathers, and other ecclesi- 
astical antiquities. In every encounter, he overwhelmed the scholastics 
with his arguments and wit, and covered their science with confusion, 
&c. His individual character was uprightness. Ardent and calm, high- 
spirited and humble at the same time ; his language, when provoked by 
injurious treatment, irritable and warm; mild and inimical to every 
species of violence in actions ; cheerful, open, of a ready wit, a pleasing 
companion ; studious, sober, and a stoic in himself; courageous and dis- 
interested, he exposed himself with tranquillity to every risk in support 
of what he believed to be the truth. Commanded to appear at the diet 
of Worms, he presented himself there, notwithstanding the terrible and 
very recent example of John Huss, with dignity, simplicity, and firm- 
ness. Far from setting Rome at defiance at the first, he wrote submis- 
sively to the pope, he exhibited no other appearance of superiority but 
that of his immense knowledge over Cardinal Cajetan, and the other 
theologians deputed by the court of Rome to convert him. 

" Being an Augustinian monk and doctor, he had been sent to Rome 
on the business of his order, and there every thing which struck his 
eye, filled his heart with indignation ; and like that General Arminius, 
who had repelled the Roman legions from Italy, it was in Rome he 
learned to despise that Rome, which at a distance he had so venerated, 
and which had appeared so formidable. I may add, that after having 
refused the offers of the court of Rome — after having been the friend, 
the adviser, the spiritual father of so many princes, from whom, did he 
wish it, he might have obtained great riches, Luther lived and died in a 
slate bordering on poverty, and left to his wife and children only the 
wteem due to his name." 



252 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

ther did, was, with great diligence and labour to translate 
the Book of God into the mother tongue, and disseminate 

P. 241. "The Marquis d'Argens. — 'In all these times of ignorance 
Luther appeared, like one of those cheering lights which after a long 
tempest announces to mariners an approaching calm. He showed the 
absurdity of errors which long respect and custom had rendered sacred. 
In short, this great man did as much good to science as he did injury to 
the court of Rome.' He showed the absurdity of the errors which long 
respect and ancient custom had rendered sacred ; he not only ridiculed 
the opinions of the theologians, but their language and manner of writing. 
He was seconded in this undertaking by Calvin ; and it is to these dis- 
putes on religion that we are indebted for the restoration of the fine arts 
and good style. The theologians of each party eagerly strove with each 
other to write correctly, and to prejudice their readers in their favour by 
the purity of their style." Hist, de I'Esprit Humain, tom. i. p. 250. 

Ibid. " The German nation acknowledges Luther for the reformer 
of its literature and of its idiom. One of his first cares was to publish 
a faithful translation of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, from the ori- 
ginal; it may be easily conceived with what avidity this immense work 
was received, and what a general sensation it excited. 'No writer, for 
many ages,' says George Muller, in his Lettres sur les Science, ' had 
seen his writings bought up with such avidity, and so read, from the 
throne to the cottage ; the popularity, the natural ease, the energy of ex- 
pression which prevailed in them, and a doctrine which cheered and ele- 
vated the soul, gained him the most upright and judicious of all classes." 

P. 2,')6. Luther is accused of violence. " At the beginning," 
saith Villars, " Luther showed himself very respectful to the head of the 
church. He expressed himself then, and frequently afterwards, with 
great moderation and decency. But let us reflect on the horrible abuse 
w ith which he was loaded ; let us read the libels of Hochstratum, Eckius, 
Tetzel, &c,, and we shall see whether Luther ought to be condemned 
for the indignation he frequently manifested. Had he not been ardent 
and vehement, how could he become the leader of so great a revolution! 
Yet his language, though sometimes violent, was never cruel and fero- 
cious, like that of some popes. 

" We shall hear Clement V. In his bull against Louis, Emperor of 
Bavaria, he expresses himself thus : ' May God strike him with imbeci- 
lity and madness : may heaven overwhelm him with its thunders : may 
the anger of God, with that of St. Peter and St. Paul, fall upon him in 
this world and in the next : may the whole universe revolt against him: 
may the earth swallow him up alive : may his name perish from the 
earliest generation: and may his memory disappear: may all the ele- 
ments be adverse to him: may his children, delivered into the hands of 
his enemies, be crushed before his eyes.' Rainald. An. Eccl. Such was 
the language of a pope ! How far beyond any thing that Luther ever 
wrote. Yet how has he been loaded by Gurasse and all his worthy 
successors, with all manner of bitter and pitiful reproaches. Strange 
blindness of ignorance and fanaticism!" 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 253 

it all around, that the people might with their own eyes 
behold the religion which Christ and his apostles taught, 
to lead men with certainty to heaven ; and that they might 
compare what their clergy taught them (and which vexed 
his very soul) with that their Lord taught, and judge if they 
agreed ; and then choose for themselves. He made no re- 
ligion, for he did not make the gospel, he only translated 
and gave it. This soon discovered to them the cheat put 
upon them by their clergy — that it was quite a different re- 
ligion — a mercenary, corrupt religion, they were giving 
them. This spoiled the pope's and the clergy's market, 
and dreadfully vexed them ; but it took the people off the 
broad road, and brought all this blame upon Luther, and 
Calvin, and all his helpers, even to this day! Now what 
man of sense will say that by thus giving God's book he 
was following the devil ? But if this was wrong to do, thus 
to present the book of heaven to the people's eyes, and tl us 
vex the clergy, then the same blame must attach to Christ 
and his apostles, for they presented the very same heavenly 
doctrine to the ears of the multitudes, and greatly vexed the 
Jewish clergy, who had been teaching wrong doctrines. 
Mark vii. 7. For which they hated him, and called him 
devil, deceiver, and what not, and finally put him to death ! 
Those teachers, then, who are vexed \vith such as publish 
or spread abroad the Scripture, or with those who receive 
or read it, exhibit themselves as being vexed with Christ, 
as brethren to the Jewish clergy, and therefore as either 
ignorant or mercenary diabolical creatures whom eveiy one 
should avoid. 

I now return : Supposing all that has been hitherto said 
on this host-worship were forgotten, yet, on papal princi- 
ples can no informed man who cares for his soul ever dare 
practise this worship; and for this plain reason — it is indeed 
confessed it would be damnable idolatry to divinely adore 
any creature ; and as there are twelve cases or more, in 
which the consecration may fail, (see p. 45,) which no 
man can possibly know or guard against, then the bread 
remains as it was, a creature only ! What now must follow, 
but that he who worships it, supremely adores a creature, 
and becomes guilty of grosser idolatry than any pagan ever 
committed, and draws down destruction on his own soul ? 
Nor can any thinking, tender-minded person be ever, at anv 
22 



254 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

lime of his life, or in any one instance, certain that he is 
not thus daily destroying himself, and heaping up for him- 
self wrath against the day of wrath. Why then should he 
venture on such a service, when it is most plain Christ 
never commanded it, and therefore it is a service of man's 
device ? Of Pope Adrian VI. it is said, that so fully did 
he see this uncertainty, that in his own mind he still said, 
Jldoro te si tii es Christus, " I adore thee if thou art Christ," 
and judged the people should say the same ! 

I then argue, that as no power whatever can work a self- 
contradiction, so can no being make what is already made ; 
but Christ was, many years before the eucharist; there- 
fore, could no power whatever make the eucharistic bread 
to be the man Christ Jesus : and hence the eucharist has 
never been so changed ; of course, it ever remained a crea- 
ture, bread, and the adoration of it was always idolatry. 

Again, to divinely adore an angel, or a good man, because 
Christ is in him by his spirit, is such idolatry as every pope 
and priest would stare at and pronounce damnable ; to adore 
a living beast, must be still more damnable ; and to supremely 
adore inaaimate matter, formed in what shape soever by any 
being, is the most damnable idoktry of all : but the eucharist 
or wafer is lifeless, and can neither see, nor hear, nor walk; 
therefore, to divinely adore the host, is conclusively the 
most damnable idolatry that th*? eye of m-an or angel ever 
sav/, or his ear ever heard. 

I laid ths fcilowing argument ^lefore Dr. Doyle in letters 
I addressed to him in 1824, p. 27: "To divinely adore any 
creature, even the highest angel in heaven, would be as cer- 
tain idolatry as to worship tlie devil : if a man would suffer 
any death sooner than worship the devil, then should a man 
endure any death sooner than adore any creature. But the 
wafer or host is a creature ; therefore, should every man of 
sense suffer any death whatever, rather than bow down and 
worship the host." 

If Dr. Doyle must confess the legitimacy of this argu- 
ment, and also knowing, as he of course must, that the con- 
secrated wafer was never adored till the year 1216; how 
then can either clergy or people adore the wafer without 
idolatry and peril of damnation ? The council of Trent, 
imposing such worship on her clergy by oath, of course 
thus binds them to commit diabolical idolatry all their days. 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 255 

and thus incur their own destruction. If they should per- 
sist in so dreadful a service, at least to a man resisting it, is 
for them to judge. 

But, supposing the consecration to succeed, when after it 
the priest breaks the host into three parts, what does he 
break? Not Christ's body; for his body being impassible 
and in heaven, cannot be broken on earth : not bread ; for 
if your doctrine be true, there is no bread there : then no- 
thing is broken ; for species, colours, or forms without sub- 
stance are nothing. Again, I would ask, what is that round, 
white, thin, sweet thing in the priest's hands after consecra- 
tion? not round, white, sweet bread, for none remains; but 
who will say it is Christ that is roii^id, or white, or thin, or 
sweet ? then it is nothing. Hence, they who worship the 
host, either divinely worship ROtMng, or worship bread, 
and plunge themselves into idolatry and destruction. What 
a religion ! 

That the host-worship is a novelty, not knovv^n till 1216, 
is most plain. 1st. Because that not till the year 1215, was 
transubstantiation, by the council of Lateran, under Pope 
Innocent III., made an arttde cf faith , as Scotus, Tonstal, 
and others write ; so, before that, it was not worshipped. 
And 2d. In the Roman canon law, we tind that it was Pope 
Honorius III., who the following year ordered that tlie 
priests at a certain part of the mass service should elevate 
the host, and cause the people to prostrate themselves to 
worship it; and also, about the year 1220, directed these 
words, "Hic Deum adora," " Worship God here,''"' to be 
written on the tabernacles in which the host was reserved 
for the sick. Turretinus, Fox's Eccles. Histor. p. 562. 

Again, seeing Christ's own sacrament was not worship- 
ped, neither was it propitiatory, and that both are appointed 
for the mass ; as the latter, therefore, is exalted infinitely 
above the former, the ministers of it must, by consequence, 
be in the same proportion exalted above our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which necessarily affixes to them the distinctive and 
'prominent character of St. Paul's " man of sin and son of 
perdition, who exalteth himself above God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. 

The learned and ingenious Jesuit, Costerus, perceiving 
these awful consequences, and at once to remove if possible 
all blame from his church, he, as is usual with thesu 
writers, rolls it upon Christ, as the author of this worship, 



256 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

tliat such as dared to find fault, might thus in blaming him 
be put to shame. "-Si eni?7i in sacramento eucharistix 
veriim Christi corpus non continetur, indigne egit Chris- 
tus cum ecclesia sua,'' &c. " If the real body of Christ be 
not contained in the sacrament, Christ has acted unworthily 
by his church, which, by reason of his own words, he has 
left m such error and idolatry as has never been seen or 
heard of. Their error who worship images of gold, silver, 
or other stuff, or living animals, as do the pagans and 
Egyptians ; or a red cloth on the top of a pole, as do the 
Laplanders, is more excusable than theirs, who worship a 
bit of bread, as Christians have done for so many ages," 
&LC. Costerus, Enchirid. c. 8, n. 10. 

This piece of wit will not do ; no artifice whatever can 
prop up this absurd doctrine or excuse this frightful idola- 
try, nor prevent its blame from falling with all its weight 
upon his church. Christ spoke so plainly at his last supper, 
that none then, nor for more than seven hundred years after, 
as we have seen, mistook his words ; but they were at 
length tortured, to serve papal purposes. When our Lord 
pronounced " St. John to be the son of the virgin Mary, 
and her his mother," (John xix. 26, 27,) had the other 
apostles proceeded thereupon to insist that he had by these 
words actually turned St. John into Christ, the real son of 
the virgin, and had sworn each other to believe and publish 
that he was no longer St. John, but the self-same Christ 
that was born of Mary, and had then straightway fallen 
down and worshipped him with divine worship, what would 
this doctor and his church have said of all this ? Would 
they not have called it wilful, stupid and damnable idolatry ? 
nor once think of excusing it, as above. But as John was 
more like to Christ than is a piece of bread, so must those 
who persist to vrorship it, be in that proportion the more 
blameable. 

Before I close I must beg to make another remark, and 
most singular and awful it is, yet not less true. When this 
council, whose doctrine we are examining, were about to 
bring in any dogma, the more impious and horrible it was, 
so much the greater air of gravity and deep devotion to God 
did they assume ! and to this day, only mark their writers, 
and it will be seen they have learned the same lesson fully, 
the greater the falsehood they are proceeding to advocate, 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 257 

the more solemn are their appeals to Heaven, — to the 
, Searcher of hearts, of their sincerity and purity ! for after 
this, who, not a sceptic, could suspect them ! Only read 
Doctor Milner's Preface, and other parts of his End of Con- 
troversy, for such appeals to God ; and yet his whole book 
is one heap of sophistries and misrepresentations — not one 
point defended with sound argument or truth ! 

Another observation of a still more terrifying character, 
if possible, and equally true, is, That the more vehemently 
the God of heaven denounces any doctrine for its wicked- 
ness, the more particular are this clergy in extolling their 
power, as received from God, to establish this very doctrine 
and to practise it, and the more do they laud it and give to 
it the deeper attention and devotion ! ! ! This all may see, 
that of all their religious services, there is none they so 
much extol as the power they have to make the body and 
blood of Christ; and their devotion in worshipping this is 
beyond comparison solemnity, by far above all the rest ! 
Behold the following claims, and with them couple the 
falsehood of this doctrine as now opened ; and with all this 
unite their admission of its entire uncertainty, together with 
the tremendous threatenings of God against idolatry, or 
image-worship, in general, but especially, against this 
supreme adoration, term^ed emphatically the adoration of the 
beast and of his image ; and see if there be not cause of 
great alarm of soul, and trembling in every part to all con- 
cerned ! 

"We grant," saith Vasquez, on 1 Cor. xi., " that the apos- 
tles commanded this to eat and drink, yet the church and 
sovereign pontiff, for just causes, abolish this commandment: 
for the power of the aposdes to give commandments has 
not been greater than that of the church and pope." Tom. 
ii. disq. 216, 12, 60. Reader, what sayest thou to this? 

Saith Gabriel Biel, "Priests have great power over the 
one and the other body of Christ. Who hath ever seen 
things like this ? He who made me, has, if I may say it, 
given me power to create him ; and he that made me is 
made by my means."* 

* Sacerdotes insignes habent potestates, super utrumque corpus 
Christi. Quis hujus rei vidit similial Qui creavit me, si fas est dicere, 
dedit mihi creare se, et qui creavit me creatur mediante me. Biol. Lect. 
1. in Can. Miss, 

' 22* 



25S THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

Again, saith the same. "The angels, citizens of heaven, 
dare not aspire to the authority of the priesthood. Passing 
by the bands of angels, let us come to the queen of heaven 
and the lady of the world. She, though in plenitude of 
grace she exceeds all creatures, yet yields to the hierarchs 
[or priests) in the execution of the mystery committed unto 
them. — Christ is incarnate, and made flesh in the hands of 
priests, as in the Virgin's womb — priests do create their 
Creator, and have power over the body of Christ."* 

But, saith Peter de Besse, " Baronius's argument is 
plainly this, ' That priests far surpass kings in dignity : 
Joshua stopped but the sun, but these (the priests) stay 
Christ, being in heaven, in the midst of an altar; the crea- 
ture obeyed the first, but the Creator obeys the last — the 
sun, the one ; and God the other, as often as they pronounce 
the sacred words. "t 

No withstanding all these high-sounding and astonishing 
pretensions to such celestial powers, thus assumed by this 
priesthood to have been conferred on them by Jesus Christ 
himself, yet hear them afterwards, as follows, and mark 
their strange inconsistency ! 

" If any one shall say, that it is not necessary for the 
ministers, when they consecrate the sacraments to possess 
intention of doing at least what the church doth, Let him 
be accursed."! 

" Should any priest not intend to consecrate, but to de- 
ceive, there is no sacrament, because intention is neces- 
sary. "§ 

Saith Gabriel Biel, " No priest that celebrate th can know 
evidently whether he be a priest; for he cannot know evi- 

* Ad sacerdotii auctoritatem angeli, coelorum cives, ne audent aspirare. 
Transgrediendo perinde agmina angelorum, ad ipsam cceH reginarn, et 
mundi Dorainara veniamus. Hsec etsi in gratia>. plenitudine creaturag 
supergrediatur universas, hierarchis tamen cedit in commissi ipsis mys- 
terii executione, &c. G. Biel. Can. Missaj, 1. 4. 

■j- At vero longe praestare sacerdotes regibus argumento quo utitur 
plane significat, &c. Peter de Besse, cap. 2, 3. Baron. Annal. 57, § 31. 

T Si quis dixerit in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt et conferunt, 
non requiri iiitentionem, saltern faciendi quod ecclesia facit, Anathema 
sit. Cone. Trid. sess. 7. can. 11. 

§ Si quis non intendit conficere, sed delusorie aliquid agere, non con- 
eecrat quia requiritur intentio. Missale Rom. d. 53. 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 259 

dently whether he be baptized, or whether he be lawfully 
ordained."* 

Saith Cardinal Bellarmine, " No man can be certain, with 
the certainty of faith, that he receives a true sacrament ; 
because it depends on the minister's intention to consecrate, 
and none can see another's intention.! 

If the council, mass-book, and doctors do not here admit 
the greatest possible doubt and uncertainty of their having- 
such divine power, or indeed of their being right in any part of 
their religion, let candour determine ! Hence, after all their 
boast and rapture about their great power given them, " to 
convert bread into Jesus Christ, really and truly,''"' and 
then to adore this new-made God, reason itself must pro- 
nounce it to be either madness or priestcraft, involving, as 
it evidently does, the highest possible idolatry, wickedness, 
and imposture ; all which Divine Revelation abundantly con- 
firms. For therein a twofold idolatry is specified, the one 
common to Pagans, but both belonging to the man of sin 
and his apostate church : the former, the worship of images ; 
the latter, the supreme adoration of the beast and his image, 
and both designated, " The worship of devils," as being their 
offspring, and to be punished in eternal fire. The one is 
marked in Rev. ix. 20. (" They repented not of the works 
of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and 
idols of gold and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, 
which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk;") and in many 
other places likewise,^ of which I take Isaiah xliv — xlv. 
*' The carpenter heweth down cedars, he stretcheth out his 
rule and marketh it after the figure of a man, according to the 
beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house; he taketh 
thereof to burn and warm himself, he burnetii part thereof 
in the fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh, he roasteth 
f-oast and is satisfied — and the residue he maketh a God, 
even his graven image — he falleth down unto it and wor- 

* NuIIus celebrans potest evidenter scire se esse sacerdotem ; quia nou 
potest evidenter scire se fore baptizatura, aut legitime ordinatum. Gab. 
Biel. Epit. Can. Missfc. 

•j- Neque potest quis esse certus, certitudine fidei, se percipere verum 
sacramentum, cum sacramentum non conficitur sine intentione ministri, 
ot intentionem alterius nemo videre possit." Bellar. 1. 8. cap. de Justifi- 
catione. 

i;Exod. XX. 4. Deut. iv. 16; xvii, 15. Levit. xxvi. Psalm ex v. Jer. 
X. 8—15. Acts xvii. 29. Rom. i. 23. Gal. v. 20. Rev. xxi. 8, &c. 



260 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

shippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith. Deliver me, for 
thou art my God ; and none considereth in his heart, neither 
is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burnt 
part of it in the fire ; yea, I have baked bread on the coals 
thereof; I have roasted flesh and eaten it ; and shall I make 
the residue thereof an abomination ? Shall I fall down to 
the stock of a tree ? He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart 
Hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor 
say, Is there not a lie in my right hand ? They shall be 
ashamed, and also confounded, aU of them ; they shall go to 
confusion together, who are makers of idols." 

Minutius Felix (an. 230, c. xxiii.) writes, " Now would 
any one be pleased to consider the pains taken and engines 
that are employed in the form^ation of images, he would be 
ashamed to stand in such fear of a thing that the hand of the 
artist had been so long playing upon to make a Goo. For 
this ivooden God, taken, perhaps, out of some old faggot 
pile, or a piece of some forlorn stump, is hung up, hewn, 
planed, &c.; or if it be a Deity of brass or silver, it is ten to 
one but it derives its pedigree from a dirty kettle, or worse, 
(fcc. But if it happen to be a God of stone, then the mallets 
and chisels are set to Avork upon him, (fee, but as he is not 
sensible of any hardships in making, so neither of your 
divine honours when made, unless perhaps, when you have 
dubbed it a God, ceases to be stone or wood or silver any 
longer. But when, pray, does it become divine ? Behold, 
it is cast, fashioned, and filed; Well, it is no God yet, 
behold, it is soldered, put together, and set upon its legs ; 
Well, it is no God yet. IJcce ornatur, consecratvr, oratur, 
tunc, prosti'ejno JDeus est, ^-c. ' Behold, it is bedecked, 
consecrated, and prayed to. Then, then, at last, behold a 
complete God,' after man has vouchsafed to make and dedi- 
cate him." 

With regard to this image-making and worship, thus di- 
vinely derided of old, it may here perhaps need no other 
comment, than just to remark. No crucifix or image must be 
used till first devoutly consecrated by its clergy,* Then, 

* The CoNSErRATixG Prater. — Rngamiis fe Domine,Sancte Pater 
omnipresens sempilerne Deus, ut digneris benedicere hoc lignum crucis 
fuse, S^c. We implore thee, O Lord, holy Father, omnipresent and ever 
lasting God, that thou wilt vouchsafe to bless this wood of thy cross 
that it may be to mankind a healthful remedy, the strengthener of faith 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 261 

then may its votaries bow down before it, pray, and devoutly 
lionour and kiss it ! 

Let us now attend to the process of the host-making and 
its worship. 

The farmer soweth wheat, it grows, it ripens, is reaped, 
and is threshed ; it is ground at the mill, it is sifted with a 
sieve; with a part thereof, the fowls, the hogs, and cattle 
are fattened ; with a part thereof the family are fed and sa- 
tisfied ; and another part is taken, and formed, and baked by 
the baker, yet it is no God ; it is brought forwards, and laid 
on the altar, and yet it is no God ; the priest handles it, and 
crosses it, and yet it is no God; but he at length pronounces 
some three words over it, then, instantly then, it is a com- 
plete God ; he falls down before it, and prays to it, saying, 
" Save me, O save me, thou art my God." He lifts it up 
to the people and cries, '■^Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit mundi 
peccata. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sins of the world !" His whole congregation fall down and 
worship it, smiting upon their breasts, crying, '•'•Mea culpa, 
mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, My fault, my fault, my very 
great fault ; my God be merciful to me ;" nor do they con- 
sider. Is there not a lie in my right hand, nor that the makers 
of idols shall go to confusion together ! Now, how exact is 
this parallel. 

To make some show of defence, to turn aside this charge 
of idolatry, it has been replied. When we fall down and 
worship the host or sacrament, it is not the outward species 
of bread and wine we thus worship, but Christ, whom we 
firmly believe to be present in the host ; and being God, he 
must be present everywhere, therefore present in the host ; 
Hence, our worship of him there cannot be idolatry. 

This, though plausible, is altogether fallacious — it cannot 
for a moment stand the touch of truth : for, 1st, had it been 
good, — had Christ been thus present in the eucharist, he 
and his apostles must have known it better than all the 
papal doctors in the world, and if it was a justifiable wor- 
ship, would have commanded it; but this, ye confess, he 
did not do, either by example or precept. Hence, this 
argument or sophism is destroyed at once, and that worship 

an inciter to good works, the redemption of souls, and that it may be a 
comfort, protection, and safeguard against the cruel darts of their enemies, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Burnet, art. 23. Alas ! what blasphemy 



262 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

is idolatry. 2d. Though Christ, as to his divine nature or 
spirit, pervades and upholds all things animate and inani- 
mate, and dwells especially in every pious person, Is that 
any argument, that plants, animals, or even pious men 
should be worshipped ? And it is worthy of notice, that 
when the Christians of old (as we learn from Theophylact, 
Arnobius, St. Augustine and others) reproached the pagans 
for their idolatry, they made this answer: "We know, as 
well as you, that these images we worship are made of 
timber or other stuff which decayeth, and are senseless, and 
are eaten by worms, and that mice and other vermin may 
burrow and breed in them. Hence, it is God, in, and by 
these things, and not these things themselves which we 
worship." If their answer be not good, so neither can 
yours for worshipping the host. 

The other idolatry, " the supreme adoration of the beast 
and his image," is thus pointed out and denounced in Rev. 
xiv. 9, 11 : "And the third angel followed, crying with a 
loud voice. If any man worship the beast and his image, 
and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand : the 
same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is 
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; 
and he shall be tormented with fire and with brimstone in 
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for 
ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who 
worship the beast and his image, and who receive the mark 
of his name." 

Most striking is it, indeed, that both those idolatries, thus 
so accurately predicted, have been distinctly decreed by the 
Trent council, and are to this hour maintained by the church 
of Rome ; the one is stated in the beginning of this letter ; 
the other, standing in flat opposition to the second com- 
mandment and to those other Scriptures, is found in session 
25, thus :* " Moreover, images of Christ, of the virgin 

* Imagines porro Christi, DeiparfB virginis, et aliorutn sanctorum, in 
templis prassertim habendas et retinendas, eisque debitura honorem et 
venerationem impertiendam, non — quod fiduciam imaginibus sit figenda, 
veluti olim fiebat a gentibus, quas in idolis spem suam collocobant, sed 
quoniam honos qui eis exhibetur refertur ad prototypa quse illse reprjE- 
sentant ; ita ut per imagines, quas osculamur et quorum quibus caput 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 263 

Mother of God, and of other saints, must be provided and 
retained in churches especially ; and to them must due 
honour and worship be imparted ; not that confidence is to 
be put in them, as did the heathen of old who placed their 
hope in their idols, but because the honour thus paid them 
is referred to their prototypes ; so that by these images we 
kiss, and in whose presence we with uncovered head pros- 
trate ourselves, we adore Christ, and worship these saints, 
whose likeness they bear !" What ! adore Christ by a 
service opposed to God's law, and which no apostle ever 
practised ? 

But what this " beast and image" mean will be gratifying 
to know. The term " beast" is put for " an emperor, or 
king, or kingdom," (Dan. vii. 3, 23,) and also (Rev. xiii. 
xiv. 9,) for " a spiritual, idolatrous chieftain or head, who 
is the man of sin — the son of perdition, sitting in the tem- 
ple of God — the bloody antichrist, the most cruel of all 
idolatrous princes, who would pour out the blood of the 
saints like water," saith Pastorini. — " He was to arise after 
and upon the dismemberment of the Roman empire," (ibid 
p. 314 — 316,) which happened in the west, under Momyl- 
lus in the fifth century ; and was completed in the east in 
546, by Totil, p. 110, 233, 247, edit. v. Dublin. 

Now, with regard to this " beast's image :" as the true 
" Christ is the express image of the true God" — the 
Father, whom all angels and true Christians adore ; so, the 
false God, sitting in the temple of God, sends forth his 
Christ or image, which all his followers must adore ; for 
he declares, " that he that will not adore it shall be damned." 
Hence, this image of the beast, which he sends forth to be 
divinely adored, is the consecrated wafer. By the adora- 
tion of this — the adoration of the beast and of his image, 
and which incurs the wrath of the true God, is performed, 
and necessarily incurs this dreadful divine denunciation 
which we find on record ! And truly remarkable is it, that 
as this adoration of the wafer is the most wicked idolatry 
on earth, and is a crime the most to be punished by the 
true God ; so, there is no religious service of this false God, 

aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus, et sanctos, quorum ilia 
similitudinem gerunt, veneremur, &c. Con. Trid. sess. 25, de invoc. 
venerat. — et sanctor. sacr. iraag. 



264 THE WORSHIP OF THE HOST 

who sits in the temple of God, to which so great import- 
ance is attached, or that is so devoutly performed, as is 
that of the worship of the host. 

In sum, the worship of the host, it is now proved, was 
never taught by Christ or his apostles — is of modern inven- 
tion — is contrary to our baptismal covenant, which binds us 
to his commands and example, and is therefore utterly sub- 
versive of the Christian religion — is condemned by the 
Scriptures, and by all fair argument, as the most absurd 
doctrine, and the most diabolical idolatry, that ever appeared 
among men ; and is, in fact, no less than an agreement with 
Satan to secure the ruin of body and soul in hell, of those 
who persist in it, through the endless duration of eternity. 
Seeing, then, that these are facts and charges which cannot 
be disproved, (if they can, let it appear,) and that neither 
can transubstantiation nor the sacrifice of the mass be sup- 
ported consistently, by any power whatever, with truth and 
the religion of Christ, should they not all, in the name of 
God, be even now given up and dismissed forever, by 
everybody who regards his soul ? 

I shall bow my knees daily before God, that he may gra- 
ciously open the eyes of his precious yet abused offspring, 
and turn them from these pernicious delusions, to the 
blessed, pure, and saving gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that we all may finally meet together with joy, and not 
with grief, around his throne in glory, and escape that 
eternal misery which is prepared for all those who obey 
not the gospel — that precious gospel which Christ, our 
GREAT JUDGE, has givcu US, to be a light unto our feet, and 
to lead us safely away from all the foolish and dangerous 
inventions of fallible man, into the peaceful paths of eternal 
life. Surely, sir, you and your brethren should not, can- 
not be displeased with me, for this my good will, and for 
labouring and studying for this noble end ; and thus coti- 
tending day and night for that faith once delivered to the 
saints, in order that this old religion, which saves the 
soul from sin and wrath, and it alone, may prevail amongst 
us. While I behold the dishonour to God, and ruin to 
man, which false doctrines occasion, if I am led to speak 
with strength, and even severity against them, it is not to 
injure or give pain to anv child of man, but to clear my 



ABSURD AND IDOLATROUS. 265 

own conscience, to do my duty, and save my fellow-men 
from them and their consequences, even death eternal, that 
I do so. 

I am. Rev. Sir, with prayer to God that he may bless 
this labour of love, to its intended end. 

Your humble servant and friend, 

GIDEON OUSELE^. 

5th edit., June 23, 1827. 



23 



LETTER VIU, 



HALF-COMMUiNION 

A GRIEVOUS NOVELTY, SUBVERSIVE OF 
CHRIST^S INSTITUTION. 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Rev. Sir, — In discussing this subject, I shall adduce, 1st. 
The institution and example of our Lord Jesus Christ in 
regard to the eucharistic cup. 2d. The canons of the coun- 
cils of Constance and Trent in flat opposition to Christ. 
3d. The testimonies of the fathers and of eminent papal 
divines ; and, 4th, close with some brief arguments. 

The Lord's Institution of the Cup, (fee. — " And as 
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake 
it, and gave to the disciples, and said — Take, eat, this is ray 
body ; and he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to 
them, saying — Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of 
the New Testament, which is shed for many ybr the remis- 
sion of sins. And they all drank of it.''* " He took the 
cup when he had supped, saying — Tliis cup is the new 
testament in my blood, this do in remembrance of me ; for 
as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do 
show forth his death till he come." 

Here, it is fully evident, that our Lord, w'ho is infinite 

* Matt. xxvi. 36—29. Mark xiv. 23. Luke xxii. 20. 1 Cor. xi 
23—35 

266 



HALF-COMMUNION, &C. 267 

wisdom, hath, by precept and example, taught and appointed 
both bread and cup in the eucharist, not only before his 
death, but also after his ascension to heaven. For, St. Paul 
(ver. 23) was taught the same, "to show forth his death 
till he come." And he (Paul) taught all Christians, in every 
place, to do so likewise. 1 Cor. i. 2; xi. 28, 29. 

We beg to premise these two propositions: 1. It being 
admitted, that Christ is possessed of infinite wisdom, nay, 
of every possible perfection, and that he is our lawgiver, 
saviour, and judge ; therefore, it is incumbent on all those 
who bear his name, forsaking all others, to cleave to his 
pure doctrine and holy example solely. 

2. Any teachers of religion found departing from his holy 
doctrine, or example, — who add to or take from his gospel, 
and refuse to be reclaimed, cannot be under the guidance 
of the Holy Ghost, nor be Christian teachers. Hence, all 
men, in order to be saved, "should try the spirits, (the 
teachers,) whether they be of God," and "prove all things, 
and hold fast that which is good." 1 John iv. 1. 1 Thess. 
V. 21. 

When a number of divines confess Jesus Christ to be in- 
finite wisdom, and yet condemn his acknowledged institu- 
tion, as a dangerous error, must they not have been deeply 
infatuated ? Without another comment at present, on the 
councils of Constance and Trent, let us hear their decrees ! 

Council of Constance. " Whereas in several parts of 
the world some have rashly presumed to assert that all 
Christians ought to receive the holy sacrament of the eu- 
charist under both species, of bread and wine, and that, also, 
after supper or not fasting ; contrary to the laudable custom 
of the church, justly approved of, which they damnably en- 
deavour to reprobate as sacrilegious. Hence it is, that this 
holy general council of Constance, assembled by the Holy 
Ghost to provide for the salvation of the faithful against Mis 
error, declares, decrees, and defines, that although Christ did 
a,fter supper institute this holy sacrament, and administered 
it to his disciples in both kinds, of bread and wine, yet, this 
notwithstanding, the laudable authority of the sacred canons, 
and the approved custom of the church, has fixed, and doth 
fix, that this sacrament ougHt not to be consecrated after 
supper, nor received by the faithful except fasting. And as 
this custom, for the purpose of avoiding certain dangers and 



268 HALF-COMMUNION 

scandals, has been rationally introduced, and that, although 
this sacrament was received by the faithful under both 
kinds in the primitive church, it was afterwards received 
under both kinds by the officiating priests, and by the people 
under the species of bread only, it being believed most cer- 
tainly, and nothing doubted, that the entire body and blood 
of Christ are really contained as well under the species of 
bread as of wine; this, therefore, being approved, it is now 
made a law. Likewise this holy synod decrees and declares, 
as to this matter, to the rev. fathers in Christ, patriarchs, 
lords, &c., that they must effectually punish all such as shall 
transgress this decree, or shall exhort to communicate the 
people in both kinds."* 

Council of Trent saith — 

"Although from the beginning of the Christian religion, 
the use of both kinds in the administration of the sacrament 
of the eucharist has been common, yet in process of time 
that custom being widely changed, the church, for weighty 
and just causes, approve this custom of communicating under 

* "Cum in nonnullis mundi partibus quidam temerarie asserere prse- 
sumuntpopulum Christianum debere eucharistise sacramentum sub utra- 
que panis et vini specie suscipere. Etiam post coenam, vel non jejunum, 
contra laudabilem ecclesise consuetudinem, rationabiliter approbatam, 
quam sacrilegam damnabiliter reprobare conantur. Hinc est, quod hoc 
prsesens concilium sacrum generale Constantiense, in Spiritu sanc*o 
legitime congregatum, adversus hunc errorem saluti fidelium providere 
satagens, declarat, discernit, et diffinit, quod, licet Christus post coenarn 
instituerit, et suis discipulis administravit sub utraque specie panis et 
vini hoc venerabile sacramentum, tamen, hoc non obstante, sanctorum 
canonum auctoritas laudabilis, et approbata consuetudo ecclesise ser- 
vavit et servat, quod hujusmodi sacramentum ; non debet confici post 
coenam, neque a fidelibus recipi non jejunis. 

" Et sicut consuetudo hsec ad evitandum aliqua pericula et scandala 
est rationabiliter introducta, quod, licet in primitiva ecclesia hujusmodi 
sacramentum a fidelibus sub utraque specie reciperetur; postea a confi- 
cie«tibus sub utraque specie, et a laicis tantummodo sub specie panis 
Buscipiatur; cum certissime credendum sit, et nullatenus, dubitandum, 
>ntegram Christi corpus et sanguinem, tam sub specie panis quam sub 
specie vini veraciter contineri; igitur approbata, nunc pro lege habenda. 
Item ipsa sancta synodus decernit et declarat, super ista materia, reve- 
rendis in Christo patribus, et patriarchis, et dominis, ut effectualiter pu- 
niant eos contra hoc decretum excedentes, qui communicandum popu* 
lum sub utraque specie panis et vini exhortati fuerint" Cone. Constan. 
an. 1414, sess. 13. 



A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 269 

one kind only, and have made it a law, which to condemn 
or change without her authority is unlawful.* 

<' If any one shall say, that all Christians ought, by God's 
command, or for the sake of salvation, receive the most holy 
sacrament of the eucharist in both kinds, let him be ac- 
cursed ! t 

" If any one shall say, that the holy Catholic church has not 
been induced by just causes to communicate the laity, and 
non-officiating clergy also, in the species of bread only ; or 
to have erred therein; let him be accursed !"J 

We shall now listen to the testimonies of Justin Martyr, 
St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, Pope Gelasius, Vasquez, 
A. e Castro, Aquinas, and the learned and famous George 
Cassander, &c. 

Justin Martyr writes, " On the day commonly called Sun- 
day, assemblies of citizens and countrymen are made, and 
the writings of the apostles and prophets are read ; the mi- 
nister makes an exhortation after this, we all rise and pour 
out prayers, and bread and wine are brought forth, and the 
minister, to the utmost of his ability, sends forth prayers and 
praises to God, and all the people unite and consent saying. 
Amen.'''' Again, " They who are called deacons among 
us, give to every one that is present, of the consecrated 
bread and wine, even as Jesus commanded them to do." § 

St. Cyprian saith, " How shall we lit them for the cup 



* Licet ab initio Christianae religionis in adrainistratione sacraraenti 
eucharistiae non infrequens utriusque speciei usus fuisset, tamen in pro- 
gressu temporis, latissime jam niutata ilia consuetudine, gravibus et justis 
causis adducta, banc consuetudinem sub altera specie communicandi 
approbavit, et pro lege habendam decrevit, quam reprobare aut sine 
ipsius ecclesiae auctoritate pro libito mutare non licet. Con. Trid. sess. 
21, cap. 2. 

f Si quis dixerit ex Dei prsecepto vel necessitate salutis, omnes et 
singulos Christi fideles utramque speciem sanctissimi eucharistiae sacra- 
menti sumere debere; anathema sit. Can. 1. 

\ " Si quis dixerit, sanctara ecclesiam Catholicam non justis causis 
et rationibus adductam fuisse, ut laicos et non conficientes, sub panis 
tantummodo specie communicaret ; aut in eo erasse ; anathema sit. 
Can. 2. 

§ Kat/ T« TiW iiUcU KiyOJtXiVil »jU.igA 7r:tVrC0V KOLTU. TTOXUC, &C. rt^TO? TT^CO' 

<pe^aj JC5U olvog. — K*3-a? 7rctgiSc<r<i.v ivriTAK^'ai civroK 'i>io-(,uv, &C. — Justin 
Mart. an. 160. Apol. 2, Antonin. Pium, sub fin. 
23* 



210 HALF-COMMUNION 

of martyrdom, if, before it, we admit them not, by right of 
communion, to drink of the Lord's cup in the church ?"* 

St. Ambrose — " It is an insult to the Lord to celebrate 
the sacrament otherwise than he did. For, he cannot be 
devout who presumes to give it in any other way than as it 
was given by its author."t 

St. Chrysostom — "It is not now, as in the old law, but 
one body and one cup is placed before all present.''^ 

Pope Gelasius — " We find that some, having received a 
portion only of the holy body, do abstain from the cup of 
the holy blood ; who doubtless (because they are bound by 
I know not what superstition) should receive the entire sa- 
craments wholly, or should be driven from the entire wholly ; 
because the division of one and the same mystery cannot be 
without very great sacrilege. "§ 

Hugo de S. Victore — " Therefore do we receive in both 
kinds, that thus may be signified the twofold effect of this 
sacrament; for, as saith S. Ambrose, it avails to preserve 
both body and soul."|| 

Gratian — "If, whenever Christ's blood is poured out, it 
is poured out for the remission of sins, I ought to receive 
it always, that my sins may always be forgiven me."^ 

Aquinas — " Christ's body is not sacramentally under the 
species of wine, nor his blood under that of bread ; there- 

* Quomodo ad martyrii poculurn idoneos facimus, si non'eos prius ad 
bibendum in ecclesia poculum Domini jure communicationis admitti- 
mus ? Cypr. epist. 54, torn. i. an. 230. 

f Indignum est Domino qui mysteriura aliter celebrat, quam ab eo 
traditum est. Non enim potest devotus esse, qui aliter pr^sumit dare 
quam datum est ab authore. Ambr. in 1 Cor. xi. 

+ Sed nunc non sic, ut olim : verum omnibus proponitur unum cor- 
pus, et unum poculum. Chrysos. hom. 18, torn. 3, in Cor. xi. an. 390. 

§ Comperimus quod quidam, sumpta tantummodo corporis sacri por- 
tione, a calice sacri cruoris absfineant; qui proculdubio (quoniam nescio 
qua superstitione docentur abstringi) aut sacramenta integra percipiant, 
aut ab integris arceantur. Quia divisio unius et ejusdem mysterii sine 
grandi sacrilegio non potest provenire. Dist 2, de consecrat. an. 492. 

II Ideo duabus speciebus sumitur ut significetur hujus sacramenti du 
plex effectus, valet enim ad tutationem corporis et animsB, ut ait Am 
brosius. Hug. de S. Vict. tom. 5, c. 6, an. 1130. 

t Si quotiescunque effunditur sanguis Christi in remissionem pecca- 
torum effunditur, debeo ilium semper sumere, ut semper peccata mihi 
dimittentur. Gratian de consecrat. dist. 2, an. 1170. 



A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 271 

fore, that Christ may be received sacramen tally, it is neces- 
sary to receive under both kinds."* 

Vasquez — " We cannot deny the usage of receiving in 
both kinds to have been in the Latin church also, and to 
have continued to St. Thomas's time."t 

A. e Castro — " In old times, for many ages, to have the 
sacrament of the eucharist in both kinds was the usage 
amongst all Catholics. This we have learned from the 
writings of many saints. "J 

Cassander saith, " Concerning the holy sacrament of the 
eucharist, it is sufficiently known that the universal church 
to this very day, and even the western or Roman church, 
for more than a thousand years after Christ, (especially in 
the solemn and ordinary dispensing of this sacrament,) did 
give both species of bread and wine to all the members 
of Christ's church, which is manifest from innumerable 
testimonies of ancient writers, both Greek and Latin; and 
they were induced to do so by the institution and example 
of Christ, who gave this sacrament of his body and blood 
to his disciples, then representing the persons of believers, 
(fee. Wherefore, it is not without cause that the best and 
most learned Catholics do most earnestly desire and con- 
tend that they may receive the sacrament of Christ's blood 
together with his body, according to the ancient usage." 
Consult, art. 22. 

Bellarmine owns, '* That the council of Basil, sess. 30, 
permitted the Bohemians to continue the use of the com 
munion in both kinds, ea conditione ut crederent commu- 
nionem sub una esse licitam," &;c. " On this condition, that 
they should believe that communion under one kind is law- 
ful, nor sever themselves from the Catholic church. "§ 

* Corpus Christi non est sacramentaliter sub specie vini, nee sanguis 
sacramental iter sub specie panis, ergo, ut sacramentaliter sumater Chris- 
tus, necesse est ut sumatur sub duabus speciebus. Alexr. Halens. par 
4, 2, 11, m. 2, Aqu. p. 3, q. 76, a. 2, an. 1260. 

■j- Negare non possumus etiam in ecclesia Latina fuisse usum utrius 
que speciei, ut usque ad tempora St. ThomsB durasse. Vasq. in 3. disp 
ep. 38. 

t Olim per multa ssecula, (sacramentum eucharistife sub utraque specio 
panis et vini,) apud omnes Catholicos usitatum esse, ex multorum sane 
torum scripturis didisciraus, Alph. e Castro, adv. haeres. ult. de euchar. 

i, Bellar. I. 4, de Eucii. c. 26, § Secundo Ex. JEn. Sylv. hist. Bohem. 
cap. 52, and Genebrad. lib. 4, Ctiron. 



272 HALF-COMMUNION 

Archbishop Synge saith, "I desire you to speak plainly 
and to answer me this question : Was it at any time the prac- 
tice of the universal church, or of any particular church, for 
one thousand years and more after Christ, that when Chris- 
tians were assembled together for the purpose of the cele- 
bration of the holy communion, the species of bread alone 
was given to the people, or the cup withheld from the peo- 
ple? And if not, by what authority doth the church of 
Rome withhold the cup from the people ?"* 

Than all this what can be more plain ? Here we have a 
flood of evidence from Scripture, antiquity, papal divines, 
and even from these councils themselves, that our Lord and 
Saviour did indeed institute and administer the eucharist in 
both kinds ; and that for many ages afterwards the same 
was practised by all Christian churches, and that any 
attempt to separate the cup from the bread was looked on 
as great impiety, superstition, and sacrilege, nay, a direct 
insult to Christ its founder ; so that this is not disputable, 
but plain matter of fact. To look, then, for reasons and 
arguments to combat such fticts and justify the sacrilege of 
taking away the cup, is such infatuation as to confess the 
sun shines, and then to try to prove it shines not ! 

So, then, they confess, 1st, " That our Lord gave both 
bread and cup, (and that after supper too,) and that this was 
the Christian usage for many ages," but now " it is an 
error dangerous to salvation !" and thus do they at once 
condemn Christ and his apostles ! 2d. They have found. 
That this mode of it left by our Lord is liable to many 
scandals and dangers. 3d. They have made a discovery 
that escaped him and his apostles, namely, " that the whole 
Christ, body and blood, is in either the bread or the cup, 
of course that one is enough." (But we have proved that 
Christ was in neither.) 4th. " They affirm the Holy Ghost 
taught them all this ! ! !" So, then, the Holy Ghost in- 
spired them to charge Christ with error, and to subvert his 
sacred institution ! Is there a thinking and sensible Roman- 
ist on earth that, on viewing all this, can forbear to shudder 
and cry out, this is nothing short of blasphemy inspired by 
the devil ? What ! Councils to be infallibly inspired by 
God to overthrow his own gospel and institutions, and to 

* Rejoinder to Dr. Nary, p. 295. 



A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 273 

set up the opposite ! Who that cares for his soul or loves 
the Lord his Saviour can for a moment listen to such hor- 
rible impieties and antichristian blasphemies ? 

DR. CHALLONER's REASONS. 

For this daring outrage against God and man they have 
some good reasons, forsooth. Saith Challoner, " No priest, 
bishop, or pope, not officiating, ever receives, even upon 
his death-bed, otherwise than in one kind, because that the 
living body of Christ, and therefore his blood, is contained 
in the species of the bread really and truly." Cathol. 
Christ, p. 53. 

Answer. If this notion were just, Christ must have 
known and appointed it. Again, the corporal presence 
being proved a fiction, this foolish reason is annihilated. 
And besides, he is contradicted by the council of Basil, as 
we have just seen. 

2. Challoner saith, " There is all the reason in the 
world to think that this appellation, fruit of the vine, was 
given by our Saviour, not to the consecrated cup, but to 
the wine of the paschal supper, as is visible from St. 
Luke XX." Ibid. p. 46. 

Answer. Let any man turn to St. Matt. xxvi. 28, 29, 
Mark xiv. 24, 25, and he will with his own eyes see if the 
bishop spoke sincerely, or told truth. And if he could, to 
prop up liis cause, be guilty of so glaring an untruth, — if he 
could belie Christ himself before our face, and with his 
gospel in our hands, when he can be so easily detected, 
who after this can rely on any thing he says about the an- 
cient fathers or others, whose books are in the hands of 
but few ? 

Saith he, "What is that which nourishes the body when 
we receive the sacrament, if that there be no bread and wine 
there ? I answer, I do not deny but the body is nourished 
when we receive the blessed eucharist, yet not by the sub- 
stance of the bread and wine, which is not there, not by 
the body and blood of Christ, which being incorruptible, 
cannot be digested for our corporal nourishment, but by the 
quantity, and the other accidents of the bread and wine." 
p. 48. 

What ! nourished by the quantity of the bread and wine 



274 HALF-COMMUNION 

and no bread and wine there? or by the accidents— the 
appearances — the colour and shape of the bread ? Can 
colours and shapes nourish a man ? Can these learned doc- 
tors themselves be thus fattened ? Yet these are his sort of 
arguments, and that satisfy Roman Catholics ! 

4. "Whosoever shall eat of this bread, or drink of this 
cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord, shall eat and drink his own damnation, 
not discerning the Lord's body. How so, if nothing more 
than bread and wine be received ? How shall the Lord's 
body be discerned, if it be not present ?" p. 37. 

I reply, St. Paul and Origen answer this sophism. " To 
sin wilfully against Christ," saith St. Paul, " is to crucify 
Christ, tread him under foot, and put him to open shame."* 
And yet his body is not there ? Origen writes, " When 
any one of us sin, when he sins grievously against Jesus 
Christ, when he departs from the faith, he does spiritually 
to Christ what the Jews did to him corporally."! Hence, 
this discerning is figurative, spiritual, not corporal; and 
thus this shameful attempt of the bishop to mislead his 
readers is frustrated. 

5th. " It was to the apostles he gave the cup, therefore 
to the officiating clergy only, and not to the laity, doth the 
cup belong." P. 52. 

Answer. It was to the apostles only he gave the bread 
also ; therefore the laity should get neither bread nor cup ; 
but if they are to have the bread, so should they the cup 
also. 2d. But the apostles, though not officiating, received 
the cup. Hence, the non-officiating clergy are to have the 
cup also. 5 

6th. " Lest the blood of Christ should be spilled, or grow 
musty, if the laity get the cup," &c., so saith Bellarmine de 
Euch. lib. 4, c. 24, ibid. 

*' Answer. But the bread also might grow mouldy, or 
fall on the ground, or "a mouse run off with it ;^'' hence, 
then, should neither clergy nor laity get any eucharist ! 
Most ridiculous reasons ! 

* Heb. vi. 6 ; x. 26—29. 

■|- Unusquisque nostrum quando peccat, maxime cum peccat ingen 
tia, in Jesum Christum peccat, si autem recesserit a fide haec facit spi- 
ritualiter Christo, quae corporaliter fecit Jerusalem. Origin, in Hier, 
horn. X. Fulk in loco 



A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 275 

7th. " The Scriptures admit of the eucharist in one kind 
only; so, in Acts ii. 42, xx. 7, is no mention made of the 
cup ; and in 1 Cor. xi. 27, where the apostle writes, 
" 17 TtiVT^i OR drink,'''' and thus gives liberty of receiving one 
kind OR the other ; the Protestant translation, by putting 
AND, for OR, has evidently corrupted the text." Ibid. 

Answer. After confessing the fact " that Christ insti- 
tuted in both kinds, and that the apostles followed his ex- 
ample," to try to bring Scripture afterwards to oppose this, 
what is it but a desperate attempt to set the Scripture 
against itself, and thus rather overthrow the Christian reli- 
gion than not prop «p his falseh-ood ? Now,- as to Actsii.- 
42, (fee, although the cup is not mentioned, yet there could' 
be no consecration without its being present. Either, then, 
it was a common meal, not the sacrament, that is there 
meant, or, if it was the eucharist, the cup must have been 
present. And again, the term bread, might, by a synec- 
doche, pars pro toto, include the drink also, aswiie'n ChrisI' 
eat bread with the Pharisee. Luke xiv. 1, see Isa. Iviii. 63. 

Again, but to try to found their sacrilege, as Pope Gela- 
sius calls it, on the syllable or, and to raise an outcry 
against Protestants, for corrupting the text ri tUvyi, argues, 
more than volumes, their great desperation. They are, 
however, forced to admit \h\s,fact, that in their own Greek, 
Latin, and English Testament, the apostle (in 1 Cor. xi. 
26, 28, 29, and x. 16, 17,) no less than five times uses 
scat, AND, in joining the bread and cup together, to be both 
eceived in remembrance of Christ. So, to say, by or, is 
insinuated, that the cup is not necessary, is to make the 
apostle contradict not only the Lord's institution, but him- 
self also ; all which proves at once their cause untenable. 

Though I will not avail myself of this, that and, not or, 
is the reading of the Alexandrian, Syriac, ^thiopic and 
Arabic MSS. nor that the apostles frequently use and for 
OR, synonymously,* but will freely give them the or, yet it 
will do them no service. For if this part of verse 28, 
*'Ze^ a man prove himself ;'''' be a divine command, so is 
this part of it, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink 
OF THAT CHALICE." (Rhcmish.) The apostle, (in verses 

• Matt. V. 17; vii. 12; xi. 13; xxi. 23; xxii. 40. Mark xi. 8. 
Luke XX. 2 ; xxiv. 44. 



276 HALF-COMMUNION 

20, 21, 22,) reproves the Corinthians, for eating ana drink- 
ing equally the same as a common meal, even to drunken- 
ness, what they should have looked on as the Lord's sup- 
per, and symbols of his body and blood — "What," says 
he, " have ye not houses to eat and drink in? or despise ye 
the church of God?" (ver. 27.) "Therefore, vi^hosoever 
shall eat of this bread,''^ to satisfy his corporal hunger, " or 
drink of the chalice of the Lord" merely to satisfy his 
thirst, eats and drinks the symbols of the Lords body and 
blood "unworthily:" and shall be '■'guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord,'''' by thus abusing its sacred symbols. 

This explanation is not only consistent with the apostle's 
reproof and reasoning, but preserves the Lord's institution 
entire, and leaves no room whatever for any half-commu- 
nion. I shall here just remark, if our Lord would not give 
the Jews real blood to drink, and if blood would not make 
them drunk ; then what made them drunk was not his 
blood, but wine, its symbol. I shah follow them no far- 
ther. Thus, those doctors have not an inch of ground to 
stand on, and all their good reasons, for sacrilegiously al- 
tering Christ's institution, 3nd approving the people of the 
cup, turn out, as might be expected, to be only so many 
more evidences of their deep infatuation and antichristian 
impiety. 

To conclude, first, when it is confessed that Christ, in his 
infinite wisdom and goodness, hath instituted the eucharist 
in both kinds, and after ascending to heaven, taught the 
same to St. Paul, (1 Cor. xi. 23;) and when it is certain 
that whosoever alters what our Lord thus appointed is ac- 
cursed of God, and that the system he substitutes is ac- 
cursed also, and must therefore prove a curse to any who 
shall daringly follow it ; who then that loves the Lord, or 
has any regard for his own salvation, can ever again use 
this corrupt invention, the half-communion ? 

This clergy knowing, as they now must, that the Lord 
never taught the host worship or half-communion, and that 
therefore they are idolatrous and accursed dogmas ; when 
yet they behold their councils enjoining them with a " non 
obstante,'''' — " neque enim ideo minus,'''' &lc., " to be taught, 
although never taught by Christ," and when they see their 
divines justifying their councils, saying, "that the church 
and pope have as much power to add to the faith, alter, or 



A GRIEVOUS SACRILEGE. 277 

dispense against the divine law, as had the apostles to es- 
tablish them at the first;" as did Vasquez,* Salmeron,t 
Bellarmine, Arcadius, Sic, (see p. 257.) What! " power 
to add to or alter the faith !" why, were the very apostles 
to do so they would be accursed ! Gal. i. 8. — I say, if this 
clergy will but consider all this, must they not shudder in 
their inmost souls, and abandon such doctrines, or otherwise 
sink into infidelity and eternal desperation ? 

3. When the arguments here produced against transub- 
stantiation, sacrifice of the mass, worship of the host or 
wafer, and half-communion shall have been examined by 
any candid man, must he not be constrained to own that 
they are such a compound of absurdity, blasphemy, idola- 
try, — in a word, such a complete system of impiety and 
religious deformity as the world never before witnessed ? 

Monstrum horrendum informe horrihile ingens. 

If then these fatal dogmas, opposed as they are to the 
gospel — the narrow road -to heaven, be the broad road to 
destruction, and that the sole object of these pages is to 
turn men away from it to the living and true God, what 
man of sense can for a moment be displeased, or can other- 
wise view this but as a labour of love to man, as well as 
duty to God — even as a pious effort to save immortal souls ? 
In fine, having combated and laid open the sophistries of 
Doctors Gother and Challoner, &c., on these several sub- 
jects, I shall now proceed to meet Dr. Milner on the same. 
I am. Rev. Sir, 

Yours, most truly in Christ, 

GIDEON OUSELEY. 

5//t edit., Belfast, July 7, 1827. 

* Licet concederemus hoc apostolorum preceptura fuisse, communi- 
care sub utraque specie, nihilominus ecclesia et summus pontifex 
potueiunt just is de causis abrogare ; neque enim major fuit apostolo- 
rum potestas, quam ecclesiae et pontificis inferendis pneceptis. Vasq. 
torn. 2disq. 216, p. 60. 

■j- Doctrina fidei admittit additionem in essential thus — Salmer. torn 
1 3, pars 3, disp. 6. 



24 



ANSWER TO m. MILNEE. 



DR. MILNER ON THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, ADORATION 
OF THE HOST, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, AND HALF-COMMU- 
NION, SELF-CONFUTED. 

As no Christian can believe Christ was in any thing 
wrong, and as the doctor and his confederates are sworn to 
believe that the gospel Christ taught, and that his apostles 
preached and wrote in the New Testament, to remain un- 
altered forever, is the only true Christian religion, and " is 
the power of God unto salvation to every one thatbelieveth :" 
(Rom. i. 16, 1 Cor. xv. 2.) so must he believe, 1st. that 
what doctrine or religion soever is found opposed to this 
gospel, is necessarily false, antichristian, and accursed of 
God, shall curse its followers, and constitute such as know- 
ingly teach it false prophets and antichrists. 

2. That as no man can believe that the opposite of what 
he knows to be truth, is truth ; so can no man teaching 
doctrines opposed to the gospel, which he swears is truth, 
believe he is teaching truth, but is self-condemned and self- 
confuted. And so must every author he quotes to support 
him, go directly to declare him either insane or a perjurer! 
and so must every such authority be a misrepresentation, 
or the author be necessarily a wicked false prophet. 

Since no pope or priest can deny the truth of these pro- 
positions, and seeing the doctor advocates the above dogmas, 
opposed as they are to the gospel, and quotes many authors 
to support him, then it follows that the doctor is self-con 
demned and self-confuted, all his authorities misquotations, 
or the authors false prophets, his arguments sophistries, and 
liimself therefore a false prophet under the wrath of God — 
The minor, that his dogmas are opposed to the gospel being 
proved, this conclu,sion, however tremendous, is unavoid 
able! 

278 



ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 279 

The mass, saith the doctor, "A sacrifice is an offering up 
and immolation of a living animal or victim to God, as he 
is the Lord of life and death, and of us and all things."'*' 
" The sacrifice of the new law is the most sacred and the 
very essential part of our sacred liturgy." " The Jewish 
sacrifices being often repeated could not take away sin : 
whereas the death of Christ on the cross obliterates at once 
the sins of those who availed themselves of it."t The gos- 
pel saith the very same.:]: All this therefore is purely Pro- 
testant doctrine ! But the eucharist, being on the night 
before the death of Christ — the only proper sacrifice, was 
given before any proper sacrifice was on earth : therefore 
no proper sacrifice was in that eucharist, nor of course in 
any mass forever. This fact annihilates all the doctor's 
dogmas and arguments at once. No proper sacrifice being 
in the Lord's eucharist, when tlie doctor is sworn to believe 
and teach, "that in his eucharist or mass there is a true and 
proper sacrifice, "§ he is therefore sworn to teach a false- 
hood, and so contradicts himself. 

But his principal argument is this, " They, the saints 
under the law of nature and the written law, had perpetual 
sacrifices of animals to represent the death of Christ, and 
to apply the fruits of it to their souls. In the same manner. 
Catholics have Christ himself really present and mystically 
off'ered on their altars daily, in the holy mass, for the same 
ends ; that is, strikingly to represent the separation of his 
blood from his body, but in a far more efficacious manner, 
and of course a true propitiatory sacrifice.'"\\ Parturiunt 
monies I and he brings a troop of pretended authorities, to 
be sure, to support him. But we shall take leave to over- 
throw the w?iole as in a moment. 

This famous argument is, A picture represents a man, 
therefore it is really that man! " The eucharist (saith he) 
more strikingly represents Christ's death than did slain 
animals, therefore the eucharist is Christ himself, reallv 
dead on the cross." 

But it must be consequent, that if the eucharist, because 

* End of Controversy, letter 40, p. 52. 

t Ibid. p. 54—55. 

i Heb. ix. 15—28. x. 10, 12, 14. 

§ Con. Trid. sess. 22 can. 1. 

D End of Controversy, 1. 40, p. 53. 



2S0 ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 

it represents Christ, be Christ himself really and truly- 
then, as each sacrificed animal represented Christ slain for 
our sins ; so every such animal was Christ himself slain 
really and truly. Now if all this is most false, if no such 
animal was Christ, then no eucharist or wafer ever was 
Christ sacrificed, and hence most false it is to say, "that 
the mass is a true propitiatory sacrifice;^'' and all the au- 
thorities brought to support it are either foul misquotations, 
or the authors were teachers of falsehoods — And hence our 
minor is proved, and the whole conclusion, as aforesaid, lies 
in full force against the doctor and his church. 

The Adoration of the Host. — "We are represented 
by our adversaries," saith the doctor, "as worshippers of 
bread and wine in the sacrament, and therefore as idolaters^ 
at the same time that they are perfectly aware that we 
firmly believe as an article of faith that there is no bread 
nor wine, but Christ himself, true God, as well as true man, 
present in it."* 

I reply, no sensible Protestant, no informed pope, pre- 
late, or priest ever did or can thus believe. For it being in 
the first place granted, " that the apostles worshipped 
Christ, but not the eucharist, not believing Him present 
there ; and as this clergy durst not say, nor could believe 
that the inspired apostles were mistaken in this, so it is 
most manifest, the doctor did not, could not believe himself 
or his article of faith, when he wrote, " we firmly believe, 
that no bread but Christ alone is present in the sacrament." 
— And 2d. It being proved, that no proper sacrifice was 
ever in the eucharist, and therefore, that Christ was never 
therein, it necessarily remained bread and wine ; and it 
being granted, "that to give supreme adoration to any bread 
or other creature is most damnable idolatry," it must fol- 
low, that the doctor could not but be aware that this adora- 
tion of the host, is opposed to all truth, as well as to the 
practice of the inspired apostles, and therefore is the highest 
possible soul-destroying idolatry. And hence he is self- 
condemned. 

We shall hear him once more. He says, " Supposing 
we are mistaken in this belief, the worst we could be 
charged with is an error in supposing Christ to be where 

* tlnd of Controversy, letter 36, p. 29. 



ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 281 

he is not ; what but cakimny or gross inattention could ac- 
cuse us of the heinous crime of idolatry? To illustrate this, 
let me suppose that being charged with a loyal address to 
the sovereign, you presented it, by mistake, to one of his 
courtiers, or even to an inanimate figure of him, which for 
some reason or other had been dressed up in royal robes 
and placed on the throne, would your heart reproach you, 
or would any sensible person reproach you with the guilt 
of treason in this case ? Were the people who thought in 
their hearts that John the Baptist was the Christ, and who 
probably worshipped him as such, idolaters, in consequence 
of their error ? The falsehood and uncharitableness of this 
calumny is too gross to escape the observation of any in- 
formed and reflecting man."* 

What an argument ! what a mighty effort of genius ! but 
the touch of truth annihilates it. What if this said bearer 
of the address should continue all his days to present it to 
the statue or to the courtier, as to his sovereign, would not 
the doctor himself deem him a fool or knave ? or had the 
Jews worshipped John the Baptist for Christ, and persisted 
in so doing all their days, could they be other than gross 
idolaters ? Hence, his quibble is demolished, and the ado- 
ration of the host or wafer, for Christ, is the hideous crime 
of idolatry; and of course, he and his brethren are, on his 
own showing, guilty of this great wickedness ; and hence, 
all his pretended authorities are either misquotations, or the 
authors are unavoi ^ably false prophets, and the doctor stands 
self-condemned an i self-confuted. 

Transubstantiation. This dogma we have already dis- 
posed of, (p. 176.) On it and its kindred dogmas the doctor 
spends thirty pages, without a single solid argument in the 
whole ; using only the trite quibbles of Gother, Challoner, 
and the rest of them, but by all means bringing to his sup- 
port a host of all sorts of authors, which, I again say, can 
only serve to exhibit him as their maligner, or themselves 
as enemies of truth. Now if a witness be detected in two 
or three lies, will any judge or court listen to him further? 
He is instantly turned down with general execration, as a 
false witness. But we have detected the doctor in error on 
every point. We have proved that in the mass or wafer no 

* End of Controversy, let. 36, p. 40. 

24* 



2S2 ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 

proper sacrifice ever was, that no apostle ever adored it. 
that Christ's body and blood were never therein, that no 7'em 
change being made, the bread remained bread, and there- 
fore the supreme adoration of it is hideous idolatry 
Hence, the doctor being thus detected in so many errors 
we might well dismiss him ; yet we shall see what he has 
to say on this point also. 

Saith he confidently, "Christ said, 'THIS IS MY 
BODY ;' and, as saith Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, he ope- 
rated what he expressed : when he speaks, nature obeys 
and he does what he says. Thus he cured the ruler's son 
by his word, and made the crooked woman straight, and he 
turned water into wine by his word, and therefore changed 
bread into his body!" 

What! is it not a palpable lie to say that a thing is now 
created that was made long before, and therefore was not 
now made? But since Christ could not lie or make a lie, 
he could not therefore make his own human body, which 
was long before born of the virgin ; and to say he did, in- 
volves blasphemy ! Nor could he make a human body for 
himself of bread, or other matter, without making it a new 
body, and different from his body born of Mary, which, to 
say he did, is again blasphemy! Nor did he say, this is 
ray human body, or my spiritual, or my mystical, or my 
figurative body, but 'my body,' leaving it to common sense 
to judge which of these it was that he gave in commemora- 
tion of him ; and what but the latter could it possibly be ? 

With regard to the change wrought on the water, the 
woman, &c., it was palpable to all present; but not so with 
the wafer. Hence, there being no such change, the paral- 
lel fails, and his sophism is spoiled ; and this doctrine of his 
church necessarily involves absurdity, idolatry, and blas- 
phemy, as is now palpable to common sense. 

When he says, " Our Lord gave no explanation to the 
Jews or to his disciples, concerning ' the hard saying, of 
eating his flesh and drinking his blood,' (John vi. 52, 60,) 
but rather goes on to confirm it." That he asserts falsely, 
is plain to any who reads verse 63, which tells us "■It is 
the Spirit that quickeneth,^'' or gives life to the soul* In 
fine, after all the doctor says against Protestants, and all his 

* End of Controversy, let. 36, p. 32. 



ANSWER TO DR. MILNER. 2S3 

sophistries, he is by the force of truth driven into Protest- 
antism ! For, with Challoner, and all the rest of them, he 
owns, this body on the altar is representative of that on the 
cross, and is mystically (not really) immolated there.* 
And this is real Protestantism ! ! ! 

Half-communion. The three former dogmas being 
proved false, this, of course, falls with them at once ; for 
if Christ was never, dead or alive, in the eucharist, as it is 
proved he never was, then he never was in either the bread 
or the cup ; and if not, then the doctor's assertion, " That 
the church, from the time of the apostles to the present, 
ever firmly believed that the body and blood, soul and di- 
vinity of Jesus Christ, equally subsist under each of the 
species of bread and wine, regarded it as a mere matter of 
discipline, which of them was to be received in the holy 
sacrament," (letter 38,) is contradicted by all truth, ecclesi- 
astical or divine ! And this fact is confessed even by him- 
self, page 50, saying, " that the council of Basil, sess. ii., 
allowed the Hussites the use of the chalice ; and Pope Pius 
IV. authorized several bishops of Germany to allow the use 
of the cup to those persons of their respective dioceses who 
desired it," &c. Hence, all he says, and his pretended rea- 
sons and authorities, are mere fallacies and self-contradic- 
tions : and our minor is now fully maintained, and the con- 
clusion, with all its deadly weight, lies against the doctor 
and all his brethren : and hence, should every one who 
cares for his soul listen to the solemn warning voice of 
God, " Come out of her, my people, that ye receive not of 
her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God 
hath remembered her iniquities." Rev. xviii. And what 
church is she that is thus guilty, but she that has cast out 
and disarranged the laws of heaven, and set up h&r own — • 
even the church of Rome ? 

• End of Controversy, let, 37, p. 34, 35. 



LETTER IX. 

THE 

LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 



A SHORT VIEW OF THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY, AND OF THE 
MAN OF SIN, WHICH WAS TO APPEAR IN THE CHURCH, PRE- 
DICTED BY THE PROPHET DANIEL, AND BY THE APOSTLES, 
ST. PAUL, ST. PETER, AND ST. JOHN, AS RECORDED IN THE 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 



TO THE REV. JOHN THAYER. 

Rev. Sir, — The Holy Ghost has given, in the sacred 
Scriptures, abundant warning of a most alarming and lontr 
continued apostasy, which would appear in the Christian 
church. Now, if we regard our ov/n salvation, it must be 
our duty to our God, our fellow-men, and ourselves, dili- 
gently to search and learn what these damnable errors are, 
and these other characters of this fearful defection, that 
we may escape them. If, then, through neglect, we fall into 
them, and suffer, our punishment must be really just. 

Our Lord warns us, "That many false prophets shall 
come, and deceive many ; and that we shall know them by 
their fruits."* 

St. Paul writes, " Let no man deceive you by any means ; 
for that day shall not come, except there be a falling aivay 
first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, 

* Matt. vii. 15,20; xxiv. 24. 

281 



THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 285 

vvh3 opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called 
God ; so that he, as god, siiteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself that he is God. — And now ye know what 
withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the 
mystery of iniquity already worketh, only that he who now 
holdeth, doth hold, until he be taken out of the way. And 
then that avicked one shall be revealed — whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy 
with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming 
is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and 
lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that 
perish. Because they received not the love of truth, that 
they might be saved, therefore God shall send them the 
operation of error to believe lying, that they might be judged 
who believed not the truth, but have consented unto ini- 
quity."* Again, " Now the Spirit manifesdy saith, that in 
the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed 
to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in 
hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared ; forbidding 
to marry, and to abstain from m-eats."t "Know this also, 
that in the last days shall come on dangerous times. Men 
shall be lovers of themselves, slanderers, traitors, pufFed-up, 
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ; having an 
appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof. Now, these avoid. Ever learning and never 
attaining to the knowledge of the truth. Now, as Jannes 
and Mambers resisted Moses, so do these also resist the 
truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the 
faith." — " For, there shall come a time when they will not 
endure sound doctrine, &c., and will indeed turn away their 
hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. "J 
— Rhemish. 

St. Peter tells us, " There shall he false teachers among 
you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even 
denying the Lord that bought them, (by subverting his 
gospel,) and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And 
many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of 
whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of: and 
through covetousness shall they with feigned words make 
merchandise of you ; whose judgment now of a long time 

• 2 Thess. ii. 3—12. f Tim. iv. 1—3. 

i Tim. iii. 1—8 ; iv. 3, 4. 



286 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

lingereth not, and their damnation slumbcieth nc \. Having 
eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin ; be- 
guiling unstable souls ; an heart they have exercised with 
covetous practices; cursed children; who haxe forsaken 
the right way : for whom the mist of darkness is reserved 
forever — While they promise them liberty, they them- 
selves are the servants of corruption." 2 Pet. ii. 

St. John — "And there came one of the seven angels, and 
talked with me, saying unto me. Come hither, I will show 
unto thee the judgment of the great whore, that sitteth 
upon many waters : M-ith whom the kings of the earth have 
committed fornication; And the inhabitants of the earth 
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication — 
And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full 
of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, 
and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls — And 
upon her forehead was a name written. Mystery, Babylon 

THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS 

OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the 
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus ; and when I saw her, / wondered ivith great admi- 
ration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou 
marvel ? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and 
of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads 
and ten horns. Here is the mind which hath wisdom ; the 
seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman 
sitteth. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
kings. These have one mind, and shall give their power 
and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with 
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is 
Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are with 
him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto 
me ; The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sit- 
teth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. 
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these 
shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate, and 
naked : and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, for 
God hath put it into their hearts to fulfil his will. And the 
woman which thou sawest, is that great city which reign- 
eth over the kings of the earth. And I heard another 
voice from heaven saying, Babylon the great is fallen. 



THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 257 

Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of 
lier sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rejoice 
over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets ; 
for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel 
took up a stone, like a great millstone, and cast it into the 
sea, saying, thus with violence shall that great city Baby- 
lon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." 
Rev. xiv. xvii. xviii. 

Behold now the aid and the artifices of the man of sin — 
the apostate chief, and of his host of deceivers, to deceive 
the nations ! " And he doth great wonders — and deceiveth 
them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles 
which he had power to do." Rev. xiii. 14, 15. "And I 
saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth 
of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of 
the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits 
of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings 
of the earth, and of the whole world. And the beast was 
taken, and the false prophet, that wrought miracles before 
him, with which he deceived them — these both were cast 
alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Rev. xvi. 
13, 14; xix. 20. 

The Duration of this cruel Apostasy. — Saith Daniel, 
"And the ten horns out of this kingdom, are ten kings that 
shall arise ; and another shall arise after them, and he shall 
be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 
And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall 
jvear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
times and laws ; and they shall be given into his hand, until 
a time, times, and the dividing of time; but the judgment 
shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume 
and destroy it unto the end : and one said unto him clothed 
in linen. How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ? 
And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the 
waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his 
left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever 
and ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half.^''* 

St. John. — "And the woman fled into the wilderness, 

where she had a place prepared of God, that they should 

feed her there, a thousand and two hundred and three score 

days ; where she is nourished for a time, times and a half 

* Dan. vii. 34—26 ; xiii. fi, 7. 



288 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

a time, from the face of the serpent. And there was giver 
unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies, 
and power was given unto him to continue yb?'^?/ and two 
months. And it was given unto liim to make war with the 
saints, and to overcome them, and power was given him 
over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations," &c. &c.* 

These, scriptures teach us : 1, That a dreadful and wide 
extended apostasy from the pure faith of Christ was to take 
place in the Christian church. 2: That from its rise, it 
would exist for a time, times, and half a time, or three pro- 
phetic years and a half, or 42 months, or 1260 prophetic 
days; all meaning ihe same, thing, that is, .1260 .^/ears. 
3. That it would be headed by one chief person, called the 
^Man of sin, the son of perdition; the beast; the false 
prophet;'^ alluding, evidently, to his twofold power, regal 
and ecclesiastical. 4. That his residence should be a cixir 
seated on seven hills, called a woman, and a whore, the 
mother of harlots, and of abominations, because.of her being 
the parent of many idolatrous churches, and of many false 
and abominable dogmas, fitly called sorceries, which would 
issue from her, to all the surrounding nations, thereby be- 
witching, corrupting, and ruling them and their kings. 
5. She, the city, and church therein, sat on a scarlet-colour- 
ed beast; or derived her magnificence from her scarlet-robed 
ecclesiastical regal head. 6. He was to be chief in the 
temple or church of God, exalting himself far above all 
Christian bishops ; nay, and all kings too. 7. He, and his 
associates, are designated as revolters from and opposers of 
the truth, changing at will, and mangling the holy docrines 
of Christ ; and, also assuming blasphemous titles, would 
thus exalt himself even above God himself. 8. That their 
artifices and lying wonders, or miracles, either feigned or 
wrought by the help of devils, and lies in hypocrisy, that is, 
with great professions of piety and orthodoxy in the very 
face of matter of fact, would abound. 9. Doctrines of devils, 
forbidding to marry, and thus polluting the world with many 
adulteries, as saith St. Peter.t 10. Idolatry, or worshipping 
the work of their own hands, which can neither see, hear, 
nor walk. ILWoxshi"^ m 2X\ unknown tongue.X 12. Per- 
secution to prevail against, and wear out the saints or true 

* Rev. xii. 7, 14; xiii. 5—7. f 2 Pet. ii. 14. 

% 1 Cor. xiv. 9—19-^28. 



THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASr. 28!) 

gospel Christians, and fill the nations everywhere with 
their blood; because they would not submit to his abomina- 
ble inventions. 13. In his direful and bloody persecutions, 
the kings of the surrounding Christian nations would agree 
to give him their power till the time determined in the divine 
counsel. 14. That all these kings, or kingdoms, which 
helped the whore, would at length hate her, even this Baby- 
lon, and would turn against, destroy, and burn her ; nay, 
that she, and the beast : the false prophet, should, by the 
power of incensed Deity, be tremendously cast down, to 
rise no more forever ! All this the Scriptures accurately 
point out. 

St. John is struck with great surprise at this dreadful 
cruelty and persecution which was to come to pass. Now, 
were a pagan city and emperor the agents in it, this could 
not have caused such wonder; for to this he was well accus- 
tomed, and was himself then an exile in the isle of Patmos 
by Domitian's decree. Therefore, when the expression 
'''■sitting in the temple or church of God, ''^ is connected 
with this bloody persecution, so strange as to excite in St. 
John so great an astonishment, it must be very manifest, 
that he saw all this bloody work, which was to waste the 
church of Christ, was to be carried on by very unexpected 
instruments, even by the chief one in God's temple — a 
bishop in succession — the man of sin, and his church, and 
great city, all claiming to be eminently Christian, What 
other thing but this awful catastrophe, so unlooked for, and 
which has since been so dreadfully realized, could have so 
mightily surprised the apostle ? 

This is truly alarming ! Being thus warned, is it not 
incumbent on all, especially on every church, which calls 
herself Christian, carefully to examine, if, perhaps, all or 
any of these marks and features of this apostasy belong to 
it? Surely none of us should be in anywise offended, for 
being thus counselled and even pressed to do so. God 
warns. Eternity is rushing on. 

AN INQUIRY, IN WHAT CHURCH THE PRECISE MARKS OF THIS 
APOSTASY ARE TO BE FOUND. 

1st mark. False doctrines. — Do we know of any Chris- 
tian church that is guilty of any departure from that ancient 
FAITH onco delivered bv our Lord Jesus Christ to the saints 



290 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

and that has turned to fables, novelties, heresies ? Must it 
not be acknowledged, that in the foregoing sheets it is de- 
monstrably proved, that all papal doctors are sworn to be- 
lieve and teach many doctrines not taught by our Lord or 
his apostles? 1st. "That extreme unction is a sacrament 
of Christ's institution, that it is necessary to salvation, and 
that it remits sins;" and yet, they are constrained to con- 
fess, that all this is but mere human invention ! 2. "The 
infallibility of the church of Rome. 3. The supremacy 
of the pope. 4. Purgatory. 5. Indulgences. 6. Tran- 
substantiation. 7. Sacrifice of the mass. 8. Worship of 
the host; and, 9. Half-communion ; are sworn to be of 
divine faith. ''^ Yet they all are proved to be mere fictions, 
corrupt inventions; deceptions. 

10. The invocation of the holy virgin and other departed 
saints, is another papal doctrine ! To beg the prayers of 
saints, of our friends or parents, in their lifetime, to God 
for us, is authorized by Scripture; but to invocate them after 
they have left this world, to do so is not taught by God's 
word, is absurd, as it would be to suppose they are present, 
and do hear us, and all others who might call on them ; 
which would be an admission that they can be everywhere 
present, and be gods, and not creatures, which would b& 
false and blasphemous. Now, I defy all the priests on 
earth to show either divine precept or example for it. And 
if it cannot be proved that our Lord Jesus Christ, or his 
apostles, or the virgin Mary, ever commanded any such 
thing, or otherwise encouraged it, — and all grant He was 
infinitely right, — they must allow that they who teach or 
practice them are infinitely wrong, and as all such wrong 
is of the devil, so must they either quit them or be followers 
of the devil. Hence, all such invocations or prayers, being 
the absurd inventions of men, are, conclusively, pernicious 
and diabolical. 

11. Such another doctrine is, "that priests have power 
to forgive sins." Now, if any could have had such a pri- 
vilege, the apostles, to whom was spoken these words, 
" Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted," "What ye 
bind on earth," &c., &c., (John xx. Matt. xvi. xviii. 18,) 
must surely have had it ; but if facts be the best expositors 
of words, and if the apostles were the best judges of their 
commission, thev had no such thing, I defv the whole 



CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 291 

world to bring any solid proof, that any apostle, or any of 
their disciples, ever assumed or exercised any authority 
whatever to forgive, on any account, any man's sins com- 
mitted against God, farther than, 1st. To preach the gospel 
to them, and thus show them how themselves might obtain 
forgiveness from God. Hear our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
his apostles, Peter and Paul, and be convinced ; " It be- 
hoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third 
day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be 
PREACHED in his name among all nations." Luke xxiv. 
47, 48. " And he commanded us," saith Peter, " to preach 
unto the people — that through his name, Vvhosoever be- 
lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins." " Be it 
known unto you," saith St. Paul, "that through this man 
(Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.''^ 
Acts X. 42, 43 ; xiii, 38. This is the only way to obtain 
real pardon. 

2d. To exclude evildoers from their society, or to admit 
ihem again when they deemed them penitent, by forgiving, 
not their sins against God, but the censure of expulsion. 
See 1 Cor. v. 1 — 5, and 2 Cor. ii. 7. Here the incestuous 
man is excluded ; and becoming penitent after, the apostle 
advises the society or church of the Corinthians " to for- 
give him;^^ i. e., to admit him again, and comfort him, 
saying, " he also for their sakes forgave him, (this censure,) 
as did they." Even the Rhemish Testament [in loco) ac- 
knowledges this, saying — " It was the debt of temporal 
punishmenf^ only, or censure laid on the man, " which the 
apostle and the church had forgiven him ;" or, 3d, " That 
men should forgive each other personal offences, one 
against another." Luke xvii. 3. Matt. vi. 14; xviii. 15. 

Thus, Jeremiah was commissioned " ?o pull down and 
destroy, to build and to plant nations and kingdoms,'' 
But in what sense ? Not actually, surely ; no, by no means, 
but declaratively only, — to preach to them, that God would 
indeed thus deal with them, according as they obeyed or 
'disobeyed his counsel delivered by his servant. Jer. i. 10; 
xvii. 7 — 9. And that this explanation is correct, is very 
manifest, by turning to the passage, and also from one of 
the old canons of the church of Rome herself: " When any 
man," saith the canon, " goeth out from the truth, from the 
fear of God, from faith, from charity, he goeth out from tiie 



292 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

camp of the church, although he be not cast out by llie 
voice of the bishop. As, on the contrary side, some be cast 
out by no right judgment; but if they went not out before, 
(by doing evil as above,) they are nothing hurt. For, 
sometimes, he that is cast out is within ; and he that seera- 
eth to be within is without." " Nam vita non sententia, 
ab ecclesia aliquem ejicit vel ad earn recipit." " For it is 
the man's life, and not the bishop's sentence, (it is his own 
obedience to God, or his disobedience,) that hurts or serves 
any m.an." Lex can. Deeret. Causa. 24, ques. 3, cap. 
cum aliquis, &c. Here we have proof irresistible, as well 
from the Scripture as from the quondam church of Rome 
herself, that it is not the bishop's voice nor decision for or 
against any man, or his curse or his blessing, that can in- 
jure or in anywise serve him. 

Hence, human absolution for sins against God, with its 
concomitants, auricular confession and penance, are but 
mere human inventions — fables — dangerous delusions. The 
absolution in the Protestant prayer-book, in the office for 
the sick, joined to that in the morning service, " God par- 
doneth and absolveth all who truly repent, and unfeignedly 
believe his holy gospel," is only a forgiving of sins or 
scandals against the church, and not those against God, 
which, it is declared in the latter absolution, himself alone 
can forgive. Thus Bishop Burnet, on the 25th of the 39 
articles, explains it, and I think fairly too. Saith he, " We 
do also forgive the scandals committed against the church ; 
and that such as we think die in a state of repentance (by 
faith in Christ) may die in the full peace of the church, we 
join both absolutions in one in the last office ; likewise 
praying to our Saviour that he would forgive them, and 
then we, as the officers of the church, do forgive all the 
offences and scandals committed by them against the whole 
body." This is their meaning, and every church has a 
right to explain its own meaning. Therefore the way of 
the Scripture of truth is the alone sure way of obtaining this 
invaluable blessing. All who try it will so find it. 

12. ^'Priestly confessions and absolutions f^ as to 
these, it is God only who knows what unnumbered mis- 
chiefs they have entailed on mankind ! Wliat secrets o( 
men, females, families, nay, of kings and nations, have been 
obtained in this way, and often for purposes most sinister ! 



CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 293 

The dangers and evils attendant on secret or auricular con- 
fessions, are abundantly set forth and exposed by Necta- 
rius and St. John Chrysostom, in whose days this usage 
was first introduced into the Christian church. A certain 
lady, having been seduced by her confessor, stung with 
remorse, ov/ned the fact, and openly confessed her adultery ! 
This scandal so roused Nectarins, then Bishop of Constan- 
tinople, that he decreed, " There must be no more of these 
private confessions f and St. Chrysostom, who succeeded 
him, ratified it ; and in no less than thirteen places in his 
works, (as Bishop Burnet on article 25 testifies,) condemns 
the practice. " Hast thou sinned ?" saith he, " thou need- 
est no witness ; confess thy sins to God, and he will for- 
give thee."*' And our Lord says, " Enter into thy closet, 
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret, to forgive thy trespasses." Matt. vi. 
6 — 12. So did the Holy Ghost, by David, teach, "I will 
confess my sins to the Lord," &c. Psalm xxxii. 5. How 
wicked then were those who, opposing tliemselves to God, 
made a law that confession must be made to men ! 

Will not common sense itself teach the vast indelicacy 
and impropriety of such intimate connexions as this spe- 
cies of confession to men necessarily occasions, and its 
danger, not only to the people, but to the clergy also ? It 
is dangerous to women, to the young most especially, who, 
on their knees, at the feet of perhaps some young man of 
unbridled passions, must whisper to him, and, " on pain of 
mortal sin and damnation,^'' unfold to him in secret all 
the sinful practices and desires, of even an indelicate or 
immodest nature, with all their circumstances; into which, 
temptation, in an unguarded hour, perhaps, might have in- 
volved them. It also must be dangerous to the clergy them- 
selves, to deprive them of chastity, humility, and a good 
conscience. Do not many, by sad experience, feel the 

* Examinatio, &c. "Let examination of thine offences be made in 
thought, lest this judgment be ivithout a witness , let God only see thee 
making thy confession ; God, who casteth not thy sins in thy face, but 
lojseth them, &c. Horn, de penit. et confess. Again, I say not, that 
thou shouldst accuse thyself before man. But I say, obey the prophet, 
saying, ' Reveal thy way to the Lord ;' confess thy sins, therefore, before 
God." Chrys. Ep. ad Heb. horn. 31 ; Daille, de Confes. 1. 4, c. 25 ; Socr, 
Hist. I. 5, c. 19. 

25* 



294 THE LATTEK-DAY APOSTASY. 

force of these observations ? So sensible was the great and 
pious John Wickliffe, a priest himself, of the numerous 
evils flowing from it, both to clergy and people, that he 
ceased not to inveigh against it continually. 

From the whole now before us, most clear is it that 
Christ or his apostles never taught this sort of confession 
and absolution, &c., and therefore that they who teach it, 
or consent to it, do in effect plainly accuse Christ as guilty 
of neglect, and insult him to his face, as an imperfect or 
false teacher ! which, if the angels of heaven dare do, they 
would be cast down to hell. And again, as these holy 
bishops did in the fifth century forbid and reprobate all such 
private confessions, &c., and that of course, in their days, 
it was no sacrament, and must therefore be now a false 
doctrine, opposed to Christ and his gospel, and so must 
necessarily prove a curse to such as follow it, should not all 
who regard salvation, and would not willingly insult their 
Saviour, resolutely, and in the fear of God, avoid it for- 
ever? 

But as no doctrine, device, or stratagem whatever is so 
effectual an instrument in the hands of the pope and his 
clergy to serve their purposes, fill their coffers, and bring 
all the people so fully under their authority, lash, and 
power as doth this confession doctrine, so is it the last 
thing they will part witli; never will they give it up, if pos- 
sible ! And that the council of Trent had these views of its 
vast utility in this way, is clear from the care they took in 
framing the decrees that go to establish it, as follows : 

" If any one shall deny that sacramental confession was 
instituted or is by divine right necessary to salvation, or 
shall say that the mode of secretly confessing to a priest 
only is not according to Christ's institution and command, 
and that it is a human invention, let him be accursed."* 

" If any shall say that in the sacrament of penance for 
the remission of sins, it is not of divine right necessary to 
confess all and each of such mortal sins which by due and 
diligent self-examination can be remembered, even secret 
sins, and those too that are against the two last command- 

* Si quis negaverit, confessionern sacramentalem vel institutara, vel 
aJ salulem necessarium esse jure divino, aut dixerit modum secrete con- 
litendi soli sacerdoti alienum esse ab institutione et mandate Christi «l 
inventum esse huraanum, anathema sit. Con. Trid. sees. 14, can. 6. 



CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 295 

ments of the decalogue, together with their circumstances, 
that might alter the character of the sin ; or that shall say that 
they who study to confess all their sins wish to leave no- 
thing to God's mercy to pardon ; or lastly, that it is unfit 
to confess venial sins, let him be accursed."* 

I call upon all the clergy living to produce Christ's insti- 
tution or command for these dogmas ; but they never have 
been able to do this, nor can they do it now ; hence they 
are but daring papal inventions, and absolute impositions. 

By those canons may every one of the least penetration 
see the part the clergy are authorized to act with the peni- 
tents at the confessional, and the questions which he may 
put, and must be answered on pain of incurring mortal sin: 
questions relative even to secret sins, and to the most cor- 
rupt actions and desires of the heart, too, not fit to be even 
named ! And when those given for self-examination as pre- 
paratory to penance, openly stated in some of their prayer- 
books, such as the "Garden of the Soul," &c., at which no 
modest eye can even glance without a blush, are considered, 
what description of interrogatories may not be anticipated at 
the privacy of the confessional, especially when captivating 
females are the penitents, and that the confessor, celibate 
as he is, may happen to be of depraved propensities ? The 
consciences of many can tell that these hints are not un- 
founded, and that day of days shall yet develope and declare 
it. What female of intellect who discovers this yoke is of 
human finesse, and is therefore an abomination to Christ, 
will ever after on any account put herself in the way of such 
profanation and danger ? or what man of sensibility, who 
regards himself and the purity of his females, can ever con- 
sent that his wife or daughter should run such risks, and 
also incur the curse of Heaven by using a doctrine and a 
practice Christ never taught, and that consequendy insults 
him ? 



* Si quis dixerit, in sacramento penitentiae ad remissionem peccato- 
rum necessarium non esse jure divino, confiteri omnia et singula peccata 
raortalia, quorum memoria cum debita et diligenti prsemeditatione hebea- 
tur, etiam occulta, et quiE sint contra duo ultima decalogi pra;cepta, et 
circumstantias quae peccati speciem mutant — aut dixerit eos qui omnia 
peccata confiteri student, nihil relinquere velle divinae misericordise ig- 
noscendum : aut demum non licere confiteri peccata venalia, anathema 
Bit. Con. Trid. sess. 14, can. 7. 



296 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

We shall now hear Drs. Challoner and Milner on this 
subject: 

"As to penance," says Challoner, p, 94, " it consists of 
contrition, confession, satisfaction, and the priest's absolu- 
tion. Confession is a full and sincere accusation made to 
a priest of all mortal sins a person can remember: and satis- 
faction is a faithful performance of the penance enjoined by 
the priest — p. 163; which penance is enjoined as an ex- 
change which God makes of the temporal punishments 
which we have deserved by sin into these small penitential 
works. P. 104, Yet it is to he feared that ihe penance en- 
joined is seldom sufficient to take off all the punishment 
due to God's justice on account of our sins." (No, purga- 
tory must finish!) P. 105, "The penitent after confession 
must say, ' I beg pardon of God, and penance and absolu- 
tion from you, my ghostly father!' and the priest then gives 
the absolution, and adds, ' May the passion of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the merits of the blessed virgin Mary and of 
all the saints, and whatsoever good thou shalt do, or what- 
soever evil thou shalt suffer, be to thee unto the remission 
of thy sins, the increase of grace,' " &c. P. 102, 103, 
" If the priest to whom confession is made has not the ne- 
cessary faculties, and approbation, and true intextiox 
also, the penance is null! ! ! !" 

Than this what more impious doctrine can be conceived ? 
Besides, fraud, deliberate fraud is stamped on every line of 
it, enhancing, as it evidently doth, the priest's power an. I 
pelf together, and the misery of his dupes. So, then, 
though the priest is sivorn that, according to the gospel, 
" the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," (1 John i. 
7,) and " there is no other name under heaven given to save 
men but that of Christ," (Acts iv. 12,) it seems he does not 
believe his oath, for he must now have other names, merits, 
penances, works, &c., to do it, and "even all this, he fears, 
is not sufficient!" other things, more confessions, penances, 
indulgences, extreme unction, with purgatory, offerings and 
masses to rescue from it, must be added ! But, lo ! after 
all the penances done, and absolutions had, and cash paid, 
all may be " null and useless to the penitent." So this 
high authority writes ! For if the confessor have not three 
fhins^s aonrobation, faculties, and intention, let the unfor- 



CONFESSION AND APOSTASY. 297 

tunate penitent do his part ever so exactly and sincerely, it 
is still null ! yes, null, useless ! ! ! 

Bat still more, though it may affright him, I must tell. 
C aver it, no priest ever had or can have these three requi- 
sites ! No, for no apostle ever had these qualities ! For, 
first, as no proper sacrifice was before Christ's death, nor 
was any therefore in his eucharist, nor of course in any 
other forever ; and then, as no apostle ever offered up any 
proper sacrifice, so was no apostle ever a sacrifici^ig priest 
or confessor ! And as it is said, " No man has power to 
forgive sins but such a true priest," it follows, then, as no 
aposde was ever such a priest, no apostle ever confessed any 
persons, or forgave any sins committed against God ! This 
has been just proved by other arguments also. Now, as no 
pope or priest could believe himself to have more virtue or 
more power than the aposdes had, so could no informed 
pope or priest that ever lived either believe himself to be a 
real priest or divinely appointed confessor ! or could have 
intention to do what no apostle ever did, namely, to forgive 
sins ! And as faculties such as true ordination, &c., can- 
not be derived but from a bishop having this required inten- 
tion and proper priesthood himself, things utterly impossi- 
ble, so is it clear that no pope, prelate, or priest ever had 
or can have such faculties ; and if not, certainly not, see- 
ing, then, that the whole is all deception, what becomes of 
these penitents and popes, prelates and priests together ? 

To lay on the topstone ; we shall now show that the 
doctors and their pope are absolutely obliged to own their 
pardons false ; yes, assuredly false. A pardon that differs 
from a true pardon is false. Christ's pardon is ever the 
same ; it took the penitent thief to paradise, the third heaven, 
and therefore takes all who obtain it to the same, at death. 
Now, masses are never intended for souls in heaven, but 
"for those detained in purgatory." But masses being 
offered for the pope when he dies, and for all Romanists, 
he and they must have gone to purgatory, not heaven. Now 
they got papal absolution or pardon duly, and whereas they 
went not to heaven, but purgatory; as the one brought to 
heaven and the other to purgatory, these pardons differing 
from one another, Christ's pardon being true, the other 
must be false. It follows, then, that these doctors, by every 
mass they say for their pope or people, do, as with trumpe* 



298 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

voice, declare, they are in purgatory, and that the pardons 
or absolutions they had given them were absolutely falla- 
cious ! ! ! Resist this who can. 

Again, since false pardons proclaim those who give them 
false prophets ; and being, therefore, opposers of the gospel 
and of Christ, are antichrists ; most conclusive then is it, 
that the assumption of those doctors and popes of having 
power to dispense such absolutions, &c., necessarily con- 
stitutes them false prophets and antichrists, and their chief 
the antichrist and false prophet. And since he who needs 
most masses to rescue him from purgatory, must have been 
the greatest sinner, and as it is a fact, that no man leaves 
this world, for whom so many masses are offered, as the 
pope ; then, this his own doctrine makes the pope to be the 
greatest sinner that ever left the world, and that his clergy 
in saying all those masses judge this of him. But tlie 
greatest sinner must be the man of sin; hence his own doc- 
trine concludes the pope the man of sin. Now, as the pre- 
mises and these conclusions are inseparable, and the minor 
cannot be disputed, they must then abandon their doctrines, 
or be conteat to bear these awful designations they affix to 
them. 

We close with Dr. Milner. In "End of Controversy," 
letter 41, he has eleven pages on it, but not one line to pur- 
pose. Like the others, he pompously refers to John xx. 
22, &c., for authority to absolve from sin : and he has texts 
about confessing, yet none for private or sacramental con- 
fession ; and he quotes fathers, to be sure, but vainly ; as 
what they mention is nothing of that sort, but certain scan- 
dals, or apostasy, public or secret, and the like ; and be- 
sides that, the doctor cannot be believed in any quotation 
of his, being so often detected ; he cannot at all be credited 
in opposition to Nectarius, Chrysostom, and the gospel. 
He brings in the Protestant prayer-book as a party ; but 
this has been explained. His only plausible argument is, 
" How could it be possible that emperors, kings, queens, 
nobles &;c., or the various orders of the clergy, popes, 
bishops, priests, &c., with monks and all the people in the 
Christian world, should be induced, tamely, and at once, to 
sjubmit to so painful a sacrament, and so repugnant to the 
pride and every feeling of the heart as this is, if Christians 



DR. MILNER CONFUTED. 299 

had not previously believed that this rite is of divine insti- 
luiion, and even necessary for the pardon of sin?" 

How weak and contrary to matter of fact is this sophism ! 
How was it, when the adoration of the wafer and cup was 
never known till the year 1216, and that divine adoration 
given to any but God is idolatry and perdition, that all the 
papal world have fallen into it ? False adoration incurs 
destruction ; to adore what no apostle adored is false adora- 
tion ; but they never adored the eucharist, therefore to adore 
it is false adoration; and incurs perdition. Now, all the 
Roman Catholic world, emperors, kings, nobles, and pea- 
santry, with their females ; also all popes, prelates, priests, 
monks, and nuns, supremely adore the eucharistic wafer 
and cup, therefore they all incur the guilt of false adoration, 
and idolatry, to their eternal ruin. And the clergy are 
sworn, to cause them thus to worship all their days ! If 
the clergy therefore are not on oath, to make them false 
worshippers and idolaters still, and, of course, to plunge 
themselves and them into the pit of destruction, let them 
deny, if they are able. Farther, how was it that the whole 
world wondered after the beast and his image ? &c. Rev. 
xiii. xiv. xviii., &c. Hence, facts prove that in what he 
says there is no truth. He extols the joys of confession, 
(fee, truly he does, but it is all priestcraft, vanity. All his 
authorities are fallacious ! Truth is mighty and will prevail. 

13. Relics. — What virtues have been pretended to be 
in "holy water, holy salt, holy clay, holy bones, holy 
grains, holy Agnus Dei's, holy beads, holy scapulars, &c., 
he. Now I ask, has Christ or his apostles ever commanded 
any of these things to be used ? If not, are they not vile 
deceptions, fables, and characters of the apostasy ? 

14. Idols. — "To have pictures, or images of gold, sil- 
ver, stone, or wood, of Christ, the virgin Mary, and the 
saints m the churches, bow down before them, and duly 
venerate and worship them, that by these they might be 
helped to worship God," is commanded by the council of 
Trent, sess. 25, de invocat. et venerat. I ask. Was this 
ever practised by Christ or his apostles ? Only read Rev. 
ix. 20, 21, &c., where it is said, that to worship such 
things, or any work of mail's hands, is expressly "/o wor- 
ship the deviW'' because he is the father of all such worship 
This we shall return to affain 



300 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

In fine ; Although, according to the doctrine of inten- 
tion, ye can never know that you are truly ordained or are 
Christians at all, or that the bread and cup are ever transub- 
stantiated, yet ye are on your solemn oath, "to worship, 
with the highest possible divine worship, the eucharistic 
bread and cup — the very work of your own hands.^^ Has 
Christ or his apostles commanded or practised this? Im- 
possible ! For, then, Christ born of a woman would be 
found worshipping a Christ made of bread, and also a Christ 
made of wine, after; whole Christ being in each, and thus 
be an idolater! Is not this another idolatrous and destruc- 
tive doctrine ? Again, if Christ's death on the cross was 
the only true sacrifice for sin ; then, that in his sacrament 
which was before his death there could be any true sacrifice, 
was impossible : then transubstantiation was impossible 
also: but these have been already discussed, and I shall fol- 
low them no farther. This is suflicient to prove this pointy 
namely, that the church of Rome is found full of false doc- 
trines, fables, and idolatries, being marks of the apostasy. 

Now, if Christ or his aposdes taught none of these many 
doctrines ; how, then, can they be divine truths ! If not, 
are they not false doctrines — deceptions ? And if it cannot 
be denied that all papal doctors are sworn to adhere to them, 
and teach them, and practise them to the day of their death, 
is it not then most evident, they are sworn on the gospels, 
to depart, (to a vast extent,) yVom the true faith, the gospel 
of Christ, and turn to fables ? to teach lies in hypocrisy, 
by pretending they are his doctrines ? And thus, do they 
plainly fulfil the predictions of Christ and his apostles on 
this point, as already noticed. Let candour examine these 
facts, and decide accordingly. Now, were there no more 
to come forward, is not even this sufficient to sound the 
alarm in the ears of any thinking man, to flee for his life 
from a church, in which this long-predicted apostasy has 
been evidently hatched, and is now found ? 

2d Mark. Time of the rise of the Apostate Chief- 
tain. Saith St. Paul, "And now you know what with- 
holdeth that he, the man of sin, the son of perdition, who 
opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself as if he were God, may be revealed in his 
time; for the mystery of iniquity already worketh, only 



RISE OF THE APOSTATE CHIEFTAIN. 301 

thai he who now holdeth, doth hold, until he be taken out 
of the way; and then that wicked one shall be revealed, 
whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth, 
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; "him, 
whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all 
power, and signs, and lying wonders ; and in all seduction 
of iniquity in them that perish." Rhemish, 2 Thess. ii. 
6—10. 

We have here the apostolic account of the predicted apos- 
tate. 1st. He is termed " the man of sin, the son of perdi- 
tion," for his extreme wickedness; 2d. As seated in "the 
temple of God," that is, as chief ecclesiastic ; 3d. As being 
"exalted above God," &c., that is, venerated above God, 
and every authority, civil and religious, by the world who 
wonder after him ; 4th. As " opposing himself to God," he 
will oppose his gospel and authority, and set up his own ; 
5th. As a " mystery of iniquity," he will work in a satanic, 
mysterious way; 6th. As "acting by lying wonders," he 
will thus deceive men, who must perish for following such, 
rather than the truth of Christ's gospel ; 7th. As " revealed 
after the extinction of what held him back," he was to 
appear after the dissolution of the Roman empire ; 8th. As 
" destroyed by Christ," that is, he must by divine power 
perish in due time forever. 

The prophecy fixes the appearing of this wicked one, 
after the removal of the then existing pagan Roman empire ; 
and Dr. Walmsley, who also is called ^^Pastorini,^^ whose 
book is well known in this kingdom, thus observes: "All 
Christian antiquity and the subsequent ages, have under- 
stood by this ' man of sin, the son of perdition,' that su- 
perlatively wicked man, antichrist, who will exercise such 
persecutions against the Christians as will exceed in seve- 
rity and cruelty the persecutions of all past ages. And what 
is very alarming, he and his attendant, the false prophet, 
will have power of showing great signs and wonders, 
insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. And 
as to his time of coming, the generality of the holy fathers 
have explained this from the aposde — ' Now you know what 
withholdeth that the man of sin, or antichrist, be revealed 
in his time, only that he who now holdeth doth hold, until 
he be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked one 
be revealed' — to mean the destruction of the Roman em 
26 



302 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

pire, which was to take place before antichrist should be 
revealed. According to the sense here expressed, the Ro- 
man empire which held, or was, when St. John wrote, was 
therefore the ' thing that withheld and was to be taken out 
of the way,' before antichrist should appear. St. Chrysos- 
tom (Hom. 4, on 2 Thess.) saith, ' The apostle speaks ob- 
scurely for fear of irritating the Romans, only that he who 
now holdeth, doth hold, until he be taken out of the way; 
that is, when the Roman empire shall be removed from the 
face of the earth, then antichrist will come.' St. Jerom 
writes, (Ep. 15, ad Alg.) 'Only that the Roman empire, 
which holds now all nations under its power, be taken 
away, and then antichrist will come.' Says Tertullian, (de 
Resur. Car. c. 24,) " Who holds, but the Roman empire ? 
the division of which into ten kingdoms will bring on anti- 
christ, and then, according to tlie aposde, the wicked one 
shall be revealed.' St. Cyril saith, (Cat. 15,) 'Antichrist 
will appear when the Roman empire is come to its period.' 
The same say St. Augustine, Lactantius, and others,* and 
that he will seize on the Roman dominions. "t 

I shall just add, that TertulUan, in his Apology, (p. 21,) 
tells the Roman emperor thus, " We, Christians, knowing 
that the dreadful power which hangs over the whole world, 
and which threatens the most horrible evils, is retarded by 
the continuance of the Roman empire, are therefore, that it 
may be deferred, under a particular necessity of praying 
for the emperors, and the continued state of the Roman em- 
pire." And Dr. Walmsley farther informs us, very truly, 
" that the western Roman empire was, with the death of 
Augustulus, finally dismembered by Odoacer, in the year 
476 ; and that the eastern part was completely ruined by 
Totila, king of the Goths, in 546. "J 

Seeing then, according to those many testimonies, which 
J^astorini himself adduces so truly, agreeing as they so ex- 
actly do with the prophecies, that this wicked man was to 
appear as soon as room could be made for him by the 
removal of the sole obstruction, the Roman empire ; and 

* The other fathers are, Justin Martyr, Origen, Ambrose, Hilary, &c. 
All these, too, affirmed this monster of iniquity would rise in the Roman 
empire. 

f Pastorini's History of the Christian Church, p. 240 — 247. 

t Ibid. p. 110—233. 



RISE OF THE APOSTATE CHIEFTAIN. 303 

since that was dismembered in the west, in the fifth, and 
completely demolished in the east, in the sixth century, as 
Dr. Walrasley well states ; it must of course follow, that in 
the seventh century at farthest, he should make his appear- 
ance : and so we find it. See, on Infallibility, p. 103, the 
note, in this book. 

We learn from Cardinal Baronius, that an ecclesiastic of 
eminence, Boniface III., Bishop of Rome, was, in the very 
beginning of the seventh century, an. 606, proclaimed uni- 
versal head, or sole general of all Christian churches on 
earth ; which title each Bishop of Rome has held fast, with 
all possible tenacity and unabating zeal and diligence to this 
day. That this ecclesiastical ruler is the only one that has 
occupied Rome, and in succession retained this occupation 
of it, and also hath obtained in his spiritual character, a 
kingdom (imperium in imperio) or dominion in the sur- 
rounding nations, that is, in the former empire now divided 
into those nations, is a fact too well known to be disputed. 
And as the sixth beast, that which this ruler succeeded, 
was an idolatrous empire, with a succession of emperors, 
and not an individual person ; so must this his successor, 
to fulfil the prophecy, be a beast or idolatrous empire also, 
with a long succession of rulers, and not one individual per- 
son only. And so shall we, in prosecuting the subject, 
exactly find it. But Pastorini, I must remark, after so ac- 
curately showing by many ancient authorities and Scripture, 
that this most wicked chieftain was to be revealed upon the 
fall of the Roman empire ; yet strangely and abruptly con- 
tradicts himself and all his foregoing authorities, and says, 
*' he will not appear till near the end of the world, and then 
only for three years and a half! ! !" Why? because he saw 
the point it would make against his church. 

St. John's prophecy and Daniel's corroborate St. Paul's, 
with what we have seen from the fathers, &c. Saith St. 
John, " I saw a beast rise out of the sea, having seven 
heads and ten horns, and upon his heads the names of blas- 
phemy; and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to 
death, and his deadly wound was healed," &c. Rev. xiii. 
An angel explains thus, " There are seven kings, five are 
fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come, and when 
he Cometh he must continue for a short space ; and the beast 
that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the 



304 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

seven, and goeth into perdition." Rev. xvii. 10, 11. This 
beast with seven heads and ten horns, which John saw, is 
evidently Daniel's fourth beast, which was so dreadful and 
terrible, (vii. 19,) and which all, both Romanists and Pro- 
testants, admit to be the Roman empire, whose metropolis, 
Rome, should have seven heads or kings, ^aaans, that is, 
would experience seven several forms of idolatrous govern- 
ment. Livy and Tacitus tell us of six of these — kings, 
consuls, dictators, decemviri, military tribunes, and empe- 
rors or Caesars, which governed Rome. Of these, five were 
•alien or past, and one was, when St. John wrote, namely, 
the Csesars. The other, a Caesar also, who, it appears, was 
a seventh, yet not one of the seven heads or idolatrous go- 
vernments, but of a contrary nature, i. e. Christian, and 
that by which the idolatry and persecution of the sixth head 
— the former imperial heathen government, under a Caesar, 
was to receive its deadly wound — was not then come ; and 
was to continue but a comparatively short space. 

But, who is he, but the Caesar or emperor, Constantine 
the Great, that " man-child who was caught up to the throne 
of God" — that is, to the imperial throne on which God set 
him, and that, being converted to Christianity, published, in 
the year 313, his edict against paganism, and thus over- 
turned that Avhole idolatrous system, civil and religious, cast- 
ing out all the pagan priesthood and magistrates at once, 
and putting Christians into their places. Thus was the pa- 
gan idolatry, which is so hateful to God, wounded as it were 
to death, by the gospel — the sword of the Spirit, and by Con- 
stantine; and a Christian government, a new thing, was set 
up in the great city and in the empire. This emperor, in 
his letter to Eusebius, thus writes : Nvrt 8s ti^i, &c. " Li- 
berty being now restored, and that dragon being by the pro- 
vidence of God and my ministry removed from the adminis- 
tration of public affairs, I esteem the great power of God to 
be made manifest to all." 

The deadly wound, then, was thus given to idolatry, by 
the Christian government under Constantine and his sons; 
yet the Christian head or government thus set up continued 
but a short space in peace and purity; for the bitter Arian 
lieresy, soon after the death of Constantine, sprung up, and 
so prevailed all over the empire, that Liberius himself, the 
then Bishop of Rome, became an Arian: and Athanasius, 



THE RISE OP THE APOSTATE CHIEFTAIN. 305 

with a few more bishops who remained orthodox, were 
driven into exile, so that, as saith St. Jerome, " the whole 
world wondered to find itself Arian." But although Rome 
was twice taken and sacked, by the barbarians under Gen- 
seric and Alaric — first in 410, and again in 445 ; and that 
the Roman empire was, in 476, in the reign of Momylus, 
the last Caesar or emperor, finally dismembered, and that 
Rome and its dependencies were after that in various hands, 
till the seventh century, (when about 606, Pope Boniface, 
by means of Phocas, became universal head of all churches ; 
and in this dignity, and also in the regal power of Rome, 
was the Pope of Rome, afterwards confirmed by Lewis the 
Pious. The exarchate of Ravenna was shordy after given 
by Pepin, King of France, to Pope Stephen II. ; and the 
kingdom of the Lombards also, being subdued by Charle- 
magne, was ceded to St. Peter's successor ; which three 
states or kingdoms, according to Dan. vii. 8, 24, 25, con- 
stitute the pope's dominions, and therefore does he, as a 
secular prince, wear the triple crown.) I say, though Rome 
was variously tossed, now in the hands of barbarians, and 
now in the hands of Arians, (fcc, yet, in all these changes 
was not the deadly wound of idolatry — of the sixth head 
healed, till the reign of the eighth or last head, which also 
is the seventh, and is the beast. And which, because it 
again revived those pagan evils with a greater fury than ever, 
is said to have ascended out of the bottomless pit ; and by 
setting up, under a new name, the old idolatry and persecu- 
tion, thus healed the deadly wound. 

This head, though called the eighth, because it in order 
succeeded the seventh, yet is not an eighth head of the great 
beast ; that beast having only seven heads ; but it is one of 
the seven idolatrous kings or heads. And the numerically 
seventh, not being idolatrous but Christian, is not counted 
among the seven; but the eighth is that seventh, or is of the 
seven, and goeth into perdition, never to be succeeded more 
by idolatry. So, "the beast, or government, that was" 
{idolatrous under the heathen emperors) " and is not," (so, 
under Constantine,) " and yet is," risen up again, and being 
from the bottomless pit, (or inspired by Satan,) is more 
dreadfully idolatrous and persecuting than even the sixth 
head was; "even he (saith the angel) is the eighth" and last, 
"and is of the seven." He is of the seven, 1st, as being one 
26* 



306 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

of the seven predicted heads of the great Roman beast or ido- 
latrous Roman empire under all its forms of government ; and, 
2d, as partaking of the nature of the seven that went before 
him, one only of which was Christian; that is, he is both 
lamb and dragon; a prophet, but the false prophet; and the 
man of sin, a bloody Nero, or antichrist; partly a professed 
Christian, but chiefly, and in a very high sense, an idola- 
trous persecutor. Now, that this mixed form has been, and 
is still the very form and constitution of the papal monarchy, 
religion, and practice, is evident. Do they not, besides 
many other idolatries, address six times, nay, ten times more 
prayers to the virgin Mary, and to saints so called, to angels, 
images, &c., (all which are idolatry,) than to Almighty God ? 
And that the persecutions have been unparalleled, cannot 
be denied. 

3d mark. The place of the man of sin's abode. 
St. Paul saith, " He sitteth in the temple of God." St. John, 
(Rev. xvii.,) "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured 
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 
ten horns, and the woman was clothed round about, wdth 
purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold, and precious stones, 
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abo- 
minations and filthiness of her fornications. And on her 
forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON 
THE GREAT, the mother of harlots, or of the for- 
nications AND abominations OF THE EARTH. And I SaW 

the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the 
blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I won- 
dered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, 
why dost thou Avonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the 
woman, and of the beast whicli carrieth her, which hath the 
seven heads and ten horns. The ^ea.9^ which thou sawest, 
was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, 
and go into destruction. The seven heads are seven moun- 
tains upon which the woman sitteth. And they are, or there 
are, seven kings, Kat /Sacraftj Irt-fa tiai. And the woman 
which thou sawest, is that great city, which hath king- 
dom over the kings of the earth." 

What this Babylon, or great city is, in which the succes- 
sor of the sixth head dwells, must evidendy be that where 
that sixth dwelt; but that was Rome; therefore, Rome is 
the same great city in which the eighth beast or seventh 



head dwells. Hence Rome is this Babylon : and so say 
the ancient fathers also. 

Victorinus saith, "The seven heads are seven hills upon 
which the vi^oman, that is, the city of Rome, doth sit."* 
And St. Jerome, ep. 17, "Read the apocalypse of John, 
and consider what is there said of the woman clothed in 
purple, and the blasphemy written on her forehead, the 
seven hills, the many waters, and the departure from Baby- 
lon." Ambrosius Anbertus writes, "The angel admonished 
us to know, that the seven heads are seven hills, and seven 
kings, that he might show, that, unto the similitude of those 
kings, he had brought Rome, which sitting aloft upon seven 
hills, sometimes governed the monarchy of the whole 
world."! Ribera saith, "Babylon, the mother of fornica- 
tions, is indeed Rome." — "Of Rome it must be understood 
not only such as she was of old under the heathen emperors, 
but also such as she shall be at the end of the world. "J 
And Viegas has it, " It is concluded that Rome at the end 
of the world, after departing from the faith, shall arrive at 
her highest power."§ " St. Augustine and St. Hierom," 
say the Rhemish annotators, " do think, that this of anti- 
christ in the temple, doth signify his sitting in the church 
of Christ, and that, according to Greeks and Latins, Rome 
itself is the second Babylon, "|| &c. 

The Rhemish Testament also, in the note on Rev. xvii. 
6, admits that Rome, but Rome pagan that was sacked by 
the Goths, is Babylon.^ And Cardinals Baronius and Bellar- 

* See Fulke in Apoc. xvii. sect. 7. 

•j- Ambros. Anb. in Apoc. xiv. 8. 

t Babylon mater fornicationum Roma sit. — De Roma intelligendum 
non solum qualis sub Ethnicis imperatoribus olira fuit, sed etiam qualia 
in fine seculi futura est. Riber. in cap. 14. Apoc. n. 39, 42. 

§ Vieg. in Apoc. cap. 18, com. 1, sect. 4. 

II Rhem. in 2 Thess. ii. Sect. 12. August. Civ. Dei, 1. 20, c. 19. 
Hierom. 9, 11, ad Algas. 

Tf Apoc. xvii. "If Babylon be understood of any particular city, it 
must he pagan Rome, which then and for 200 years after persecuted 
the church, and was the principal seat both of empire and idolatry." 
Ver. 8, — " This beast which supports Babylon, may signify the power 
of the devil ; the seven heads are seven mountains or empires, instru- 
ments of his tyranny ; the beast itself is said to be the eighth and of the 
seven, because they all act under the devil and by his instigation, so that 
the power is in them, yet so as to make up, as it were, an eighth empire 
distinct from them all." Ver. 12, "Ten kings, ten less kingdoms, 



308 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

mine agree, "that by Babylon, Rome is meant; and that 
St. John calls Rome Babylon, in several places of the 
Apocalypse, is clearly gathered from chapter xvii."* Pro- 
pertias writes, "Rome is that lofty city seated on seven 
hills, which ruleth over the whole world."t Now, were it 
true that Rojne heathen, not papal, was meant, seeing that 
it was not Christian, how could it fall from the faith? 
Hence, it must be Rome Christian that fell from the faith, 
and became Rome papal. Again, if it were true that the 
overthrow mentioned in Rev. xviii. 21 — 23, had reference 
to Rome heathen, when plundered by the Goths, in the fifth 
century, we of course should have no Rome now, or after 
that; for the prediction is, " That a mighty angel took up 
a stone, as it were a great mill-stone, and cast it into the 
sea ; saying. With such violence as this shall Babylon that 
great city be thrown down, and shall be found no more at 
all. And the voice of harpers, and of musicians, and of 
them that play on the pipe, and on the trumpet, shall no 
more be heard at all in thee," &c. &.c. But this judgment 
has not yet occurred ; therefore it \& future; and hence, not 
Rome heathen, but Rome papal, is it which is Babylon, and 
the seat of the eighth beast that rose out of the bottomless 
pit ; even the dreadful man of sin. 

The beast which John saw, ascended £x trj? ajivaaov, out 
of the bottomless pit. Rev. xvii. 8, and xiii. 1. Ex tr^s 

enemies of the church of Christ, which nevertheless shall be made in- 
struments of the justice of God for the punishment of Babylon." Ac- 
cording to this note, then : 

"The last beast, the eighth empire, and distinct from all others, as being 
a compound empire, regal and spiritual, whose seat is Rome, is instigated 
by the devil to persecute the church of God, in which he is assisted by 
the ten kings, who shall, in the end, be instruments of God's vengeance 
to destroy him and Rome." By which, he must, therefore, be some 
regal and spiritual chief. Now, who can he be ? Not the pagan emperor 
of Rome, which was the sixth, not the eighth, head of the beast: hence, 
it must be his successor, the man of sin, and Rome papal. Thus the 
very papal writers themselves are, by the force of truth, constrained, 
however reluctantly, to designate him and Rome as the eighth and last 
head, or beast to be destroyed, as even this note testifies. 

* Certissimum est nomine Babylonis Romanam urbem significari ; 
Baron, ad an. 45. Johannes in Apocalypsi, passim, vocat Romam 
Babylonem, et aperte colligitur ex. cap. xvii. Bellar. de Rom. Pont. I. 5, 
cap. 13. 

f Roma, septem urbs alta jugis, totique praesidit orbi. 



PASTORINI ON ROME AND ANTICHRIST. 309 

ea^asarji, Gilt of the sea, appears to be the same. Ancients 
and moderns, papal writers and Protestants, are all agreed 
that this beast represents the Roman empire, either heathen 
or papal. But the heathen Roman empire was established 
long before St. John's time; hence, it could not be that; 
but it must be in some form after its dismemberment, even 
in that, when the dragon giving his seat, power, and au- 
thority to the beast, his seven crowns then passed over to 
the beast's ten horns. Hence, the ten-horned beast is suc- 
cessor of the dragon, or idolatrous, persecuting, heathen 
Roman empire. Now, what beast or idolatrous power hath 
that been, which is the eighth or last, and hath since con- 
tinued, and to abide 1260 years, except the papal only, 
even the emperor of all emperors, the pope ? And who but 
he has set up the old idolatry under a different name ? The 
beast therefore is the eighth, and the successor of the dragon 
or heathen empire. And what power hath succeeded the 
heathen emperors, in Rome, all the world knows, even he 
who, to this day, reigns in it, and claims spiritual power in 
the nations. 

In fine, Pastorini agrees with all that I have sai 1. Saith 
he : " But who is this inhtiman woman, this impious Jeze- 
bel, this cruel persecutrix, that has drenched herself with so 
much Christian blood which she has spilt, that she appears 
drunk with it ? who is she but (as tells the angel) that 
great city that hath kingdom over the kings of the earth, 
idalatrous, persecuting Rome, Babylon the great, the daugh- 
ter of ancient Babylon ? This woman being the image of 
the city of Rome, the beast on which she sits very naturally 
represents the Roman empire. And as the woman was 
styled the mother of fornications, &c., consequently Rome 
was the seat and centre of idolatry ^ and in like maimer, 
by the beast, is the Roman empire represented as the 
empire of idolatry ; the colour of the beast is scarlet, an 
emblem of his sanguinary disposition, and is full of blasphe- 
mous names, as those of the heathen Roman gods, the 
greatest indignity that can be offered to the majesty of the 
Supreme Being."* 

Again : " The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, 
and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into de- 
struction. The seven heads are seven mountains upon 
• Pastorini, p. 114, 117, 5th edit. Dublin. 



310 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

which the woman sitteth ; and they are seven kings ; five 
are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when 
he is come, he must remain a short time. And the beast 
which was, and is not, the same also is the eighth, and is 
of the seven, and goeth into destruction. 

" Behold a very mysterious explication of a mystery," 
saith the doctor. " The beast, or the Roman idolatrous em- 
pire was ; that is, existed for a term of time, then is not, or 
exists not as the empire of idolatry, but is become a Chris- 
tian empire, Constantine the Great having expelled idolatry 
and established Christianity in its place. But it is added, — 
* The beast shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go 
into destruction;' that is, the Roman idolatrous empire will 
rise up again under antichrist from the bottomless pit : and 
Satan will revive idolatry chiefly by means of that wicked 
man, antichrist, who will become master of the ancient 
Roman dominions. And the inhabitants of the earth shall 
wonder, seeing the beast that was, and is not, and yet is ; 
that is, the world will be struck with amazement at seeing 
the idolatrous Roman empire reappear, which had so long 
been destroyed. The seven heads of the beast are seven 
mountains on which the city or woman sitteth; but besides 
this, the seven heads are seven kings or Roman emperors, 
chief supporters of idolatry and persecutors of the Christian 
religion." — p. 118, 119. What is more explicit? 

Pastorini says again and again, that when this antichrist 
shall at the end of the world come, he shall continue but 
three and a half years ! What a story ! Facts, however, 
and his own words confront him. Thus Rome is proved 
the place of the man of sin's abode. 

4th mark. Pride and Exaltation. — Who is the man 
of sin and son of perdition, who sits in the temple or 
church of God, exalting himself above all that is called God, 
or is worshipped, and is also full of names of blasphemy, 
&c. ? Now, let us inquire. Can any such character be 
found in any of the Christian churches we know ? Has not 
the Bishop of Rome, from the seventh century to this day, 
claimed, nay assumed to be head over all bishops in the 
world ? And are not all his bishops and doctors sworn to 
believe and teach, " that he alone is the visible head of the 
church,'''' &LC.1 

"The pope," saith Bellarmine, "is appointed by Christ 



THE PRIDE OF THE MAN OF SIN. 311 

the pastor and head not only of all particular churches, but 
also of the whole universal church taken together."* "And 
whoso shall refuse obedience to the apostolic seat, is a here- 
tic, an idolater, a pagan. "t 

Hear Pope Innocent III. serm. 2. — " To me it is said in 
the prophet, ' I have appointed thee over the kingdoms and 
nations; to pluck up and destroy; and to build and plant.' 
To me also it is said in the apostle : '/ will give unto thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven.'' I am, then, placed 
between God and man ; below God, but above man. Yes, 
greater than man, who am to judge all men, and can be 
judged by none." Again, serm. iii. "I am the spouse, 
because I have a noble, rich, and lofty wife, the most holy 
Roman church, the mother and mistress of all the faithful ; 
and which hath brought me a precious dowry — a plenitude 
of spirituals, and a vast extent of temporals." Again, " God 
rnade two great lights in the firmament of heaven ; also, he 
hath made two great lights in the firmament of the Catholic 
church ; i. e. two dignities : the pontifical authority and the 
regal power. But that which rules the day, the spiritual, is 
the greater light ; that, carnal things, is the less. So that 
as much as the sun and moon differ, be it known, there is the 
same difference between the Roman pontiffs and kings. "| 

Mat. Paris saith of this pope: " That he was above all 
men ambitious, proud, insatiably avaricious, and prone to 
every wickedness. "§ 

Urban VIII. in his famous bull : " God has confided to St. 
Peter and his successors two swords, the one spiritual, the 
other temporal; the first to be exercised by the church itself, 
and the other by the secular powers for the service of the 
church, according to the will of the pope. The latter is in 
subjection to the former, and the temporal authority depends 

• Bell, de Concil. auctorit. lib. 2, c. 15. 

f Corp. Juris Can. dist. 22, omnes. Dist. 8 1 , P. Greg. VII. Si qui, &c. 

t Mihi dicitur in propheta, constitui te super gentes et regna, ut evellas 
et destruis, et edifices et plantes. Mihi quoque dicitur in apostoio, Tibi 
dabo claves regni. Sum enim, inter Deum et hominem medius constitu- 
tus, citra Deum, sed ultra hominem ; imo major homine, qui de omnibus 
judicem, a nemine vero judicari possim. Serm. 2. Again, Fecit Deus 
duo magna lurainaria, &c. Emper. Constantinop. Extra, de major, et 
obed. c. 6. 

§ Super omnes mortales ambitiosus, et superbus, pecunijeque sititor 
insatiabilis, et ad omnia scelera prociivis fuit. Histor. Joh. Reg. AngL 



312 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

indispensably on the spiritual power which judges it, while 
God alone can judge the spiritual power. It is, then, neces- 
sary to salvation, for every human creature to be in subjec- 
tion to the Roman pontiff! ! !"* 

Saith the council of Florence : " We define, that the holy 
apostolical see or Roman pontift' is invested with the pri- 
macy of the whole world; is the successor of St. Peter, 
prince of the apostles, the true vicar of Christ, and head of 
the whole church, and father and doctor of aU Christians," 
(fee. &c. 

Cornelius Mus, Bishop of Bitanto, writes; "I candidly 
own I would believe one pope before a thousand Augustines, 
Jeromes, Gregories, Scotuses, &c., in those mysteries that 
touch faith. "t And Durgeus: "They who write or teach 
any thing they have not received from the church, are not 
worthy of the name of fathers. "J: 

Add to all this what is found in this book, p. 100, and 247 
— 258, where it may be seen, that the pope and his clergy, 
expressly, claim greater power than the very angels or apos- 
tles ; for no apostle durst alter any part of the gospel, as do 
they ; and also what Gregory the Great, a Bishop of Rome, 
just before the rise of the eighth beast, said : " That he, who 
in his pride calls himself universal priest, is antichrist's 
precursor ;§ and his pride is clear!" 

I say let any candid man view the whole, and can he in 
conscience believe such vast arrogance in anywise consists 
with the lowly mind of Jesus Christ, or that it is not the 
very opposite, and therefore the very predicted mark of that 
impious man, who "exalteth himself above all that is called 
God?" 

5th mark. Scarlet Array — AVho is this scarlet beast, 
and who is this woman seated on seven hills, "arrayed in 
scarlet and purple,'^'' wearing a crown of gold, and decked 
with precious stones, which the prophecy so distinctly points 
out? for though these things are litde in themselves, yet 

* Unum sanctum, &c. in Nov. 1302. 

■\ Ego ingenue fateor plus uni summo pontifici crederim, in his quaj 
fidei mysteria tangunt, quam mille Augustinis, Hieronymis, Gregoriis, 
Scotussis, &c. Cornel. Mus. Com. in Rom. c. 10. 

t Dur. Resp. ad Whitaker. 

§ Quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat m elatione sua antichris- 
tum prajcurrit. Gregor. Epist. lib. 6, ep. 30 



MAN OF SIN DRESSED IN SCARLET, &.C. 313 

xvlien connected with other matters, and thus noticed hy 
the Holy Ghost, they become important, and surely deserve 
our attention. 

Pastorini himself notices it thus, in his book: "The im- 
perial lady, this inhuman woman, appears dressed in purple 
and scarlet^ and gilt with gold and precious stones ; she is 
thus decked out in riches and pride, a.nd purple, the usual 
robe of the Roman emperors, sjid scarlet, showing her stained 
with the blood of the martyrs. Who is she but, as tells the 
angel, idolatrous, persecuting Rome, Babylon the great ? And 
the colour of the beast is scarlet, an emblem of his sangui- 
nary disposition." — p. 115. 

Who can deny that this applies to the pope ? Are not 
scarlet and purple, which is not a little striking, still the 
very colours in which he and his cardinals constantly, and 
so gaudily appear, and that, even to their very hats, hose, 
and riding apparel ? &c. 

6th mark. Mother of Harlots. — What church is that 
which is styled " mother of harlots and abominations ?" Is 
there any church on earth that claims to be mother of all 
churches, and their mistress too, insisting also on it being 
her divine right to rule over and govern them, save Rome 
only? The church of Christ in Jerusalem was the first, or 
mother church, this is granted ; but in the very face of this 
fact, the church of Rome to this day claims, by a public 
decree of the council of Trent, and for ages before, "/o be 
the mother and mistress of all churches P^ And are not all 
her doctors and bishops, on their oath, to believe and teach 
this ? Now, no other church on earth but her lays claim 
to such prerogatives and pretensions. Hear her: "Foras- 
much as the holy church of Rome is set up to the world for a 
glass and example, whatsoever she determineth or ordaineth 
ought by all to be perpetually and invincibly observed. She 
is tlie hinge, and head, and mistress of all churches ; against 
which, whosoever speaketh any evil, or endeavours to take 
away her privilege, is forthwith a heretic," &c. Corp.Jur. 
Can. Decret. part 2 — Disf. 19, Cap. enimvero dist. 22. 
C. JRomana Ecclesia, &lc. &lq. 

7th mark. Worship in an unknown Tongue. — Saith 
the apostle, " Now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with 
tongues, what shall I profit you ? For, if the trumpet give 
an uncertain sound, who shall prepare liimself to the battle ? 

2'7 



314 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

So likewise, yon, except you utter by the tongue plain 
speech, how shall it be known what is said ? for you shall 
be speaking into the air. 1 Cor. xiv. 9. How shall he that 
holdeth the place of the unlearned say Amen to thy bless- 
ing ? because he knoweth not what thou sayest. I thank 
my God, I speak with all your tongues; but in the church 
I had rather speak Jive words with my understanding, that I 
may instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue 
(unknown.) If any speak with a tongue, (not known,) let 
another interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him 
hold his peace in the church.'' 1 Cor. xiv. Rhemish. 

What more plain could the Holy Ghost pen by his ser- 
vant on this subject? Now, what church is it, that, contrary 
to the faith, which thus expressly prohibits the worship of 
God — singing, praying, and preaching — to be performed in 
auy unknown tongue, has nevertheless, in the face of all 
this, made an absolute law, " That the mass, or public 
worship, although it contain much instruction for the faith- 
ful, yet must, in every nation, be, not in the vulgar tongue, 
but in the Latin only ; and that part of the canon, and the 
words of consecration, must be spoken in a loiv voice; and 
that whoever shall say it is wrong so to do, is accursed."* 
Is it not the church of Rome alone, which has done so ? 

So, then, God expressly forbids the public worship to be 
in any unknown tongue ; and the church of Rome, in her 
council, coniQiands the contrary, pronouncing him who 
shall say, this is wrong, accursed. But the Holy Ghost 
says it is wrong. Doth it not follow, then, that this church 
and her head, who claims to be Christ's vicar, pronounces 
the Holy Ghost, anathema ? ! ! ! What pious mind that 
considers this open outrage and blasphemy against the Al- 
mighty can avoid shuddering, or can with a good conscience 
countenance a worship that involves so great wickedness, 
or be at all present at it ? Now, if St. Paul should come to 
earth, and that some one shouted to the priest, when per- 
forming this worship. Here is St. Paul coming, just coming\ 

* Etsi missa magnam contineat populi fidelis eruditionem, non tameB 
expedite visum est patribus, ut vulgari passim lingua celebraretur. Con 
Tad. sess. 22, cap. 8. 

Si quis dixerit ecclesise Komante ritum, quo submissa voce pars cano- 
iiis et verba conseciatioiiis proferuntur, damnandum esse ; aut lingua 
tantum vulgari inissam celebrcuri debere — anathema sit. Sess. 22, can. 9 



WORSHIP IN AN UNKNOWN TONGUE. 315 

would not the priest affrighted run off? and would a man 
stay in the mass-house?!! Hence, most plain is it, that 
the pope and his clergy, as if resolved to oppose God in 
every thing, have here decreed against all reason, Scrip- 
ture, and antiquity! 

Hear the Emperor Justinian ; (citing 1 Cor. xiv.) "We 
command that all bishops be careful that the people be 
taught in their own tongue — for how shall the unlearned 
praise the Lord God, and say Amen, if he understand not 
what is spoken ? If they neglect these things, the judgment 
of God and of Christ shall fall on them : neither will we, ' 
when we know it, rest and leave it unrevenged."* 

Cardinal Cajetan [in loco) thus saith, "From this doc 
trine of St. Paul, it follows, that for the edification of tlie 
ehurch, it is better, the public prayers which the people 
hear should be made in that language which both priests 
and people understand, than be said in Latin. "t 

Erasmus, on this chapter, breaks out, "It is wonderful 
how the custom of the church is altered in this matter : for 
St. Paul had rather speak five words, so as to teach others, 
than ten thousand in a strange tongue."! 

Saith St. Cyprian, "To pray otherwise than as Christ 
has taught, is not ignorance only, but wickedness, because 
he has expressly said, ' Ye do reject the commandment of 
God, that ye may establish your own tradition.' "§ Thus, 
he strikes two papal errors at once. 

St. Ambrose, in loco, writes, " If ye come together to 
instruct the church, those things ought to be spoken which 
the hearers may understand ; for what does he profit the 
people, who speaks in an unknown tongue to them ?" 

" We ought," saith St. Augustine, " to understand what we 
pray for, that we may, not like parrots, and such like birds, 
that are taught to sound forth what they understand not, but 
like men of reason, sing unto God." Angus, ad 1 Cor. xiv. 

* Jubemus oinnes episcopos, «&c. Constit. 123. 

■f- Ex hac PauU doctrina habetur, quod melius est ad edificationem 
'ecclesiae, orationes publicas quje audiente populo dicuntur, dici lingua 
communi clericis et populo. Cajet. Comment, ad 1 Cor. xiv. 17. 

t Hac in re mirum, quam mutata sit ecclesiae consuetudo, &c. Erasm. 
in 1 Cor. xiv. 

§ Aliter orare quam ut Christus docuit, non ignorantia sola est, sed 
et culpa, quando ipse posuerit et dixerit, rejicitis mandatum Dei ut tra- 
ditionem vestram statuatis. Cypr. de Orat. Dom. p. 309. 



316 THE LATTER-DxVY APOSTASY. 

Sailh Basil the Great, " -^ y-Kujoaa ^aXT-ET-co, o 6s vov? tpsv- 
laT'to," &;c. "Let thy tongue sing, and let thy mind, 
according to the apostle, search the meaning of what is 
spoken." — In 1 Cor. xiv. 

Origen, cnntra Celsum, 1. 8, n. 13. "He (Celsus) for- 
gets that Cliristians offer their prayers, not to angels, but to 
God only by Jesus Christ ; he mixeth sti-ange matters, con- 
founding them with the affairs of Christians ; wherefore let 
all men be persuaded and know, that true Christians do not 
in their prayers use the names of God which are used in the 
Holy Scriptures, (i. e. in Hebrew, &;c.) but men of every 
nation do pray and praise God with all their might, in their 
ow^i mother tongue. And the Lord of all tongues doth 
hear them praying in all tongues, understanding them that 
speak so diversely none otherwise than if they were men 
of one speech and language." Thus doth this father strike 
two errors at once, invocation of angels, and using a 
strange language in ivorship. 

Wolfius tells us, " That Pope Vitalianus, an. 666,* com- 
manded every thing in the churches of Christians to be 
performed by their priests in Latin. "t 

How unreasonable is it to call on people to learn to be 
Christians, and keep from them the Christian book, nor 
suffer them to hear its language, except in a tongue they 
cannot understand ; and that any church would prefer mak- 
ing her people worship like barbarians or birds, not know- 
ing what they hear or say, rather than as rational beings ! 
Yet for this most strange policy the pope had his own rea- 
sons, of course. The first probably was, as the siqjremacy 
w^as a new thing in the earth, he considered that by uniting 
clergy and people everywhere by one and the same lan- 
guage and worship to their head, he, in this wise, might 
establish his throne. 2. As other unscriptural dogmas and 
practices might further be useful for his security, they 
might be thus less observable. The result, however, is the 
forming another predicted mark of the apostasy, "worship 
in an unknown tongue ! !" 

* See Rev. xiii. 18. Now to 666 add 1260, and we have an. 1926. 
See Kershaw on Rev. 

■\ Papa Vitalianus omnia in Christianorum templis per suos sacri- 
fices in Iiatino sermone fieri jussit. Wolf. Lect. memorab, p. 74, ad 
an. 666. 



WORSHIP IN AX UNKNOWN TONGUE. 317 

Now, the council of Trent appears to confirm this; for 
she learned from Pope Paul III., and by experience, the 
absolute necessity, for the safety of the church, of training 
the people in such sort of disgraceful worship and igno- 
rance. For as Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and other eminent 
writers observe, he held a grave consultation with his 
bishops in Benonia, some time after Luther's preaching, 
writings, and translation of the Scriptures had made such a 
noise as to shake the papal see, how the dignity and peace 
of the church might be upheld and conserved ; this, among 
other things, they gave as their last advice and weightiest 
of all : 

*' That by all means as little of the gospel as might be, 
especially in the vulgar tongue, should be read to the peo- 
ple : and that that little which is in the mass ought to be 
sufficient : neither should it be permitted to any to read 
more : for so long as men were contented with that, all 
things went well with them ; but quite otherwise since 
more was commonly read. That, in short, the Scripture is 
that which, above all others, hath raised those tempests and 
whirlwinds, with which we were almost carried away. 
And in truth, if any one diligently considers it, and com- 
pares with it what is done in our church, he will find them 
very contrary to each other, and our doctrine not only very 
diflferent from it, but repugnant to it." See Tillotson's 
Sermons, &c. 

This document, so authentic, and of nearly three hundred 
years standing, is at once notable, and, to every thinking 
mind, of the last importance ! for, though short, it speaks 
volumes. It confesses, and thus corroborates what these 
sheets go to establish; 1st. "That very much of the papal 
doctrine is not in the book of God, nor in agreement with 
it, but actually repugnant to it." It is plain, therefore, it 
must be antichristian and false doctrine, fabricated for cor- 
rupt and secular ends. 2d. " That that book, when under- 
stood, raises such tempests about the papal church as en- 
dangers its very existence ; hence, that it is her greatest 
foe, and must by all means be opposed, hxii jiidicioushj , for 
fear of alarm." 3d. " That the peace, prosperity, and 
security of that church rest principally on the people's ig- 
norance of that book of truth." 4th. "That that book has 
been then, and must ever be dreaded by that church," 
27* 



318 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

therefore, though God gave it without note or comment io 
man, to lead him to salvation, yet the people, lest they 
should know its contents, and thus discover the cheat put 
upon them, must wisely be kept as much as possible fron) 
the knowledge and understanding of it, in every snape anc: 
form !" That the mass, therefore, because it contains some 
little portion of it, must be in a tongue not understood by 
the people." From which, it is most clear, that what the 
council of Trent, and the pope and his clergy ever since 
have done against this book, and w^hat the bulls of the pre- 
sent pope, and the assiduity of his clergy are now doing, to 
keep the people, and the youth especially, from knowing it, 
chasing the little ones, even of the poor, from those schools 
of benevolence where they might meet it, on pretence that 
it might hurt them, or that it is corrupt; and all that has 
been written and said by papal doctors against it for past 
ages, which it w^ould take volumes to tell, combine, demon- 
strably, to prove the truth of the declaration of this docu- 
ment, namely, — " That the doctrines and church of Rome 
are, in general, actually contrary to the Bible, or to the doc- 
trine and church of Christ !" and, therefore, that she is 
necessarily of antichrist. Who not insane but must see 
this ? 

Doctor Milner's Defence of this daring outrage on all 
common sense, — nay, both on God and man — is at once as 
impious as it is both impudent and ridiculous. With un- 
blushing front he says, what no man could believe, " Tha' 
Latin is the most general language of Christians ! and 
was the vulgar tongue in the apostle's days ! That where 
It is not commonly understood, it is not the church whicl 
has introduced a foreign language among the people, but i 
is the people who have forgotten their ancient language.' 
End. Cont. let. 47. 

This is the sum and strength of his defence ! And now 
let his warmest friends say, is it truth, or did he believe a 
sentence of it himself? So, then, God commands his wor- 
ship, prayer, singing, and preaching to be everywhere in 
the tongue tlie congregation understands. Dr. Milner (foV 
all priests) replies to God, " No, the worship must be in 
Latin, for we are sworn to it; and it is the most generally 
known language, though scarce one of a thousand uuder- 
siands it ! And the blame of this does not lie on the cliurch, 



MARRIAGE PROHIBITED. 319 

for using a strange tongue, but on the people, for having 
forgotten it !" forgotten what they never knew! What a 
reply to God ! And how more than mad, how criminal 
are the people who suffer themselves to be thus openly 
deceived! 

8th mark. Forbidding Marriage.* — Such another de- 
spotic doctrine is this, opposed both to reason and Holy 
Writ. What church is it, departing from that faith that 
allowed the marriage of the clergy, which (contrary to 
Scripture, antiquity, and reason) has made a severe law, 
forbidding the marriage of all her clergy ? Can the church 
of Rome deny this charge ? 

As there is no passion in man that more sorely besets 
him, and formidably threatens, not only his own ruin, both 
temporal and eternal, but the interests of religion and the 
peace of society at large, than that which inclines to the sin 
of fornication, the apostle, taught of God its dangers, pro- 
poses a fit expedient. " To avoid fornication," saith he, 
"let every man have his own wife, and every woman her 
own husband." " It is better to marry than burn." " Have 
we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other 
apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas ?"t 
(Pope Leo, Dist. 13, Can. Omnino, was of opinion, that 
this yuiutxa, wife, meant one married to an apostle.) " Mar- 
riage is honourable in all, but whoremongers and adulterers 
God will judge. "J Hence, we learn from Scripture, that 
bishops and deacons, as well as others, might and did 
marry. 

Antiquity also teaches the same. Thuanus, a Roman 
Catholic, that excellent historian, says, " No papal writer 
denies that the first who opposed the clergy's being mar- 
ried was Pope Calixtus, in the year 220; until which time 
the marriage of the clergy, in both the eastern and western 
churches, was lawful ; and that Maximilian TL then urged 
against him, that the priests of the old law, and most of the 

* Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall 
depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of 
devils: speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared, 
forbidding to marry, and to abstain from meats, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 3 ; 
iii. 2—12. Titus ii". 6, 9. Rhemish. 

t 1 Cor. vii. 9 ; xi. 5. \ Heb. xiii. 4. 



320 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

blessed apostles were married men."* That Eusubius de- 
clares, " That it is certain the apostles themselves, few 
excepted, had wives, "t and that Paphnutius, at the council 
of Nice, (an. 325,) did assert the marriage of the clergy ; 
and that, even by one of those canons, which Roman Ca- 
tholics themselves do avow for apostolical. En;tffxo7to5 vi 

7tpf(J,3uT'tpoj iq Staxovo^ tiqv rj ai^'T'ou yiiratza jXTq £;^)3a7.X£rco. Can. 

Apost. 5. ** A bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, must not 
put away his wife." 

Ignatius, "All the apostles except St. John were mar- 
ried."! Clemens Alexandrinus tells us, "That the apos- 
tles carried xYielx wives about with them, to minister to those 
who were mistresses of families, that so the doctrine of the 
Lord might, without evil suspicion, enter into the apart- 
ments of women." And in describing his perfect Chris- 
tian, he saith, "He eats, and drinks, and marriss, having 
the apostles for his example. "§ The council of Ancyra, 
an. 315, can. 9, hath these words, "All deacons who are 
established in their charges, if they declare they have need 
to marry, let them, after they are married, remain in their 
ministry. "II And the council of Gangra, after, hath this 
canon, "Et n? Staxptvotr'to," &c. — "If any man make a dif- 
ference of a married priest, as if none ought to partake of 
the oblation when he officiates, let him be anathema." 

Cardinal Cajetan saith, "Setting aside all other laws, 
and standing to those we have from Christ and the apostles, 
it cannot appear by reason, or by any authority, that holi/ 
orders can be any hinderance to marriage, either as it is an 
order or as it is hohj.''^^ Nicholas Cusanus whites, "Tiil 
the time of Pope Cyricius, in 385, it was lawful for all 
priests to marry; nor vow, nor law, nor other restraint 

* Liquet item, in orientali et occidentali ecclesia usque ad tempus 
prohibitionis a Calixto factse sacerdotum conjugia iicita fuisse. 

■\ Constat apostolos ipsos paucis exceptis conjuges habuisse, &r. 
Euseb. lib. 3, cap. 13. 

t Epist. ad Philadelph. an. 140. 

§ EcrS/y, KU TTivit, KU ycLfjLii — iiKov^c i-)(U rcvc :ur:a-T{.Xcv;, &c. Clem 
Alox. Strom. 1. 7, c. 12. 

I Atixovot ovTci KxQ-ta-xvrat, &c. Con. Ancyr. can. 9, an. 315. 

t " Nee ratione nee auctoritate probatur quod, absolute loquendo, ordo 
sacerdotalis vel in quantum sacer est, &c., impedimentum est matrimonii^ 
give ante, sive post, seclusis omnibus legibus, stando tantum his quae a 
Christo et apostolis habentur." Cajet. tom. i. tract 25. 



MARRIAGE FORBIDDEN, &C. 321 

being to the contrary."* Polydore Virgil says the same, 
and adds, "That the marriage of the clergy could not be 
prevented till Pope Gregory VII., in the year 1074, deter- 
mined it; in which, however, he was resisted, as intro- 
ducing a custom never received. "t 

The bishops of France, Germany, and Italy, met to- 
gether, and decreeing that he, Gregory VII., had* acted 
against Christian piety, deposed him : for that he had (con- 
trary to Christ, who said, " He that putteth away his wife, 
except for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit 
adultery," Matt. v. 32) divorced men and their wives, and 
while denying such as had lawful wives to be priests, he 
had at the same time admitted to the altars whoremongers, 
adulterers, and incestuous persons." — Madgb. cent. 11, p. 
589. And Bellarmine himself grants, "that for some hun- 
dreds of years the church of Rome permitted her Greek 
priests to have their wives, and proves by arguments that 
by the law of God this is not forbidden." Bellar. de 
Cleric. 1. 1, c. 18. 

Scripture and antiquity prove that Noah, Abraham, 
Moses, Aaron, Isaiah, Ezekiel, &c., these holy preachers 
of righteousness, and the Jewish clergy, with nearly all the 
aposdes, and all the clergy generally, for several ages after- 
wards, were married. This, to preserve them pure, was 
the will of the holy and all-wise God. But the pope, as if 
in wisdom above God himself, and all these his servants, 
hy forbidding the marriage of all his clergy, on pretence 
of their greater purity, but in reality to preserve the church's 
worldly revenues, and to increase his power and grandeur, 
has fixed upon himself this very prominent mark of the 
apostasy, "Forbidding to marry." 

10th mark. Fornications. — But the papal clergy, in 
making themselves wiser than God, thus, by their private 
confessions and absolutions, and their celibacy, directly 
concurring, as they evidently must, to produce corruption, 
fell, as might be expected, into Satan's snare, "They be- 
came fools. And as they did not like to keep God in their 
knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, and to 

* "Post aliquot tempora visum est," &c. Nichol. Cusan. ep. 2, ad 
Boem. 

f " Non ante pontificatum Gregorii VII. anno 1074, connubium adimi 
sacerdotibus occidentalibus potuit." Pol. Virg. de invent, ver. 1, 5,c. 4 



322 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

all uncleanness.' Ata tov-to rCapfBiox^v av-tov^ u ©foj nj 7(aOy] 
atiixLai — "being filled with all injustice, fornication, 
wickedness, avarice, malice."* Now, when the vast mul- 
titude of the clergy, secular and regular, of all degrees, were 
prohibited from marriage, that preservative allowed them 
by that infinite Wisdom who created them, and that all 
classes of people must come to these private confessions, 
and so frequently too, and open up their {even indecent) 
secrets, as above : and when the well-fed pastor is celibate, 
and when he can lay on penance, and when he can loos 3 
and absolve from the guilt confessed, what on earth, I ask, 
— I appeal to every breast — can be conceived more calculated 
to produce general pollution, and fill the world with forn'- 
cations and adulteries on every hand? Truly, these most 
impious and unhappy laws were fitly called by the apostle, 
doctrines of devils. 

And that this has been the natural result, first, among the 
clergy themselves, and then, the heads being corrupted, 
among the other classes indiscriminately, none who consult 
history, or the writings of even Cardinal Baronius, Platina, 
St. Bernard, and other papal doctors, on the lives of the 
popes, will for a moment deny. And thus we behold the 
exact fulfilment of the divine predictions, 1st, by their false 
doctrines and idolatries, as already stated, called spiritual 
fornication ; and, 2d, by actual and overflowing adulteries, 
and other most vile corporeal pollutions. Was not Pope 
John XII. killed in the very act of adultery, by the woman's 
husband ? Nor did Baronius scruple to tell the world, 
" That for one hundred and fifty years together, St. Peter's 
chair was filled not with aposdes, but apostates, put in 
fradulently by vile prostitutes, viz. Marozia, Theodora," &c. 

A papal writer says of Pope Clement V., " He was a 
public debauchee : from that time forth, all discipline and 
religion failed among the cardinals," &c.t — Saith St. Ber- 
nard, "The portraiture of these times (12th century) is 
made up of fornications, adulteries, incests, detestable vil- 
hnies, and acts of the utmost filthiness." And Honorins 

* Propter hoc tradidlt illos Deus in passiones ignominise, in reprobum 
sensum, repletos omni injustitia, fornicatione, nequitia, avaritia, malitia, 
«Scc. Rom. i. 22—29. 

I Hie fuit {)ublicus fornicator, ab eo tempore defecit omnis disciplina 
el religio in cardinalibus, &c. Paral. Ursp. Gen. in Clem. V. Papa. 



POLLUTION ENCOURAGED. 323 

ofAutun ranks, in order, "princes, monks, priests, nuns, 
and nunneries, and all orders of men to have been thus de- 
filed." See the account of the horrible pollution of the 13th 
century by Matthew Paris ; of those of the 14th by Alvarez 
Pelagius, (a defender of Pope John XXII.) He sets forth 
" the cloisters as places of prostitution, in which debauchery, 
drunkenness, impure and filthy discourses, &c., &c., did 
reign ; and that even the horrid sin of Sodom reigned in 
the most august and venerable churches." — Jurieu by Whi- 
taker, p. 316. Of those of the 15th cent, by Eneas Sylvius ; 
of those of the 16th, by Cornelius Mus, Bishop of Bitanto. 
Thus, he spoke publicly, in the midst of the council of 
Trent, " There is no filthiness, how monstrous soever, no 
villany, no impurity, with which the people and clergy were 
not defiled." — p. 370. Well did St. Peter prophesy, "Eyes 
they have, full of adultery, which cannot cease to sin, cursed 
children." Cardinal Bembo records, '■'■That Pope Leo X. 
was an atheist^'' of course an adulterer, "and that he one 
day told him, 'This fable of Jesus Christ had done them 
good service.' " 

I must add ; however severe the popes have been against 
the MARRIAGE of the clergy, they were not so against their 
whoredom and uncleanness, but rather gave them, as their 
own writers loudly testify, and with grief complain, actual 
indulgences in them for money ; showing plainly that it was 
not for the sake of God, or purity, but for other reasons 
altogether, they made such impious rules. 

How strange ! that men who know that the prophets and 
apostles, these purest servants of God, were married, should 
rather see their clergy polluted, than married men. The 
learned Chamier gives several instances to this amount from 
papal writers, who actually plead for debauchery in the 
clergy, rather than marry. 

" Pighius is blamed," saith Hosius, "who wrote that a 
priest who through infirmity of the flesh hath fallen into 
whoredom, sins less than if he should marry. This doctrine 
with some is vile, but with Catholics it is most honest."* 

Costerus saith, " Should a priest indulge in uncleanness, 

* Reprehenditur Pighius qui non vere magis quam pie, scriptum reli- 
quit, minus peccare sacerdotem, qui ex infirinitate carnis in fornicatior.em 
sit prolapsus; quam qui nuplias contraxit. Turpis videtur h:EC oratio, 
contra, Catholicis honestissima. Hosius, confess, cap. 56. 



324 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

nay, keep a concubine in his own house, although he is 
thereby guilty of great sacrilege, yet he sins more heinously 
if he marry.* 

Cardinal Campeggio writes, " That for priests to become 
husbands, is by far a more grievous sin than if they should 
keep many prostitutes in their houses. "t Strong delusion. 
O horrible doctrine ! 

Mathias Aquensis saith, "That a man who, after vowing 
continency, doth marry, offends more than he who through 
human frailty goes astray with a hundred different women. "± 

But when the pope grants an ecclesiastic a dispensation 
to marry, as in the case of Mauritio, son of the Duke of 
Savoy, or of Cardinal C. Borgia, who, in the year 1500, 
became Duke of Valenza and married a wife, or of Cardinal 
Camillo, nephew to Pope Innocent X. in 1654, such mar- 
riage is no sin ! Hence, it is no sin for a priest after his 
celibate vow to marry, if the pope give leave, but without 
this, it is a dreadful sin, nay, greater than to live in daily 
pollution, contrary to God's holy law ! So, then, should a 
priest, or monk, or nun marry, O, what a noise, what an 
alarm is raised ! such are perjured, lost, damned ! But if the 
pope, " the God in the temple," gives a dispensation, all is 
right, all is calm ! Hence, to sin against the pope and his 
law, is a vastly greater offence than to sin against God and 
his law ! Thus, by putting his law above the law of God, 
the pope proves himself to all men, as " that man of sin 
that exalteth himself above God." 

Hear Espencseus, " Instead of the pure and chaste celi- 
bacy, there hath succeeded impure and filthy whoredom. "§ 
Saith St. Bernard, " This whoredom, it is so common, neither 
can be concealed ; nor doth it seek to be hid, it is become 
so brazen ; both the clergy as well as laity having permis- 
sion given them to cohabit with their concubines, upon the 

* Sacerdos si fornicetur aut domi concubinam foveat, tametsi gravi 
sacrilegio se obstringat, gravius tamen peccat si contrahat matrimoniuni. 
Coster, de coelib. Sacerdot. 

-j- Quod si sacerdotes fiant mariti, multo gravius peccatum est quatn si 
pluriraas domi raeritrices alant. Card. Camp, op. Sleid. com. 1. 4. 

t " Qui post continentiae votura, devotet potestatem corporis cuivis 
mulieri, magis otfendit, quam iste qui humana fragilitate deviaret cum 
centum diversis feminis." Math. Aquen. Oper. 

§ " Pro puro mundoque coelibatu, successit irapurus et immundus cou- 
cubinatus." Espen. lib. 2, cap. 7, de Continentia. 



POLLUTION ENCOURAGED. 325 

payment of a yearly sum of money ^ this toleration or in- 
dulgence hath got a firm footing ; and this payment being 
made, they are at liberty to keep a concubine or not. O 
execrable wickedness !"* And in his comment on Titus, he 
further complains, "Episcopi, archidiaconi," &c. "Bishops, 
archdeacons, and officials, do ride about their dioceses and 
parishes, for the most part, not to deter the wicked from 
their vices, but to draw out and defraud both clergy and 
laity of their money, whom, upon the payment of a yearly 
revenue, they permit to cohabit with concubines and pros- 
titutes. And this they exact in some places of even the 
chaste ! for he may, say they, have a concubine if he please. 
And how often are those who keep concubines, and they so 
many, punished in any other way than by thus paying mo- 
ney ?" I shall pass by, although it lies before me, the tax 
for various sins of uncleanness, in their book of rates : they 
are too horrible to be named. " That Pope Sixtus IV. 
erected in Rome brothels, out of which a large weekly re- 
venue was paid," is mentioned by C. Agrippa, de Venitat. 
scient. p. 64. Hence, he is the " man of sin." Of this 
vast profligacy one of their poets complains thus : 



-Koma ipsa lupanar, 



Reddita : nunc facta est toto execrabilis orbe. 

" A brothel-house famed Rome is now become ; 
Contemn'd of all, she hastens to her doom." Anon. 

"In the year 1515," saith Thuanus, " Pope Leo X., a 
man giving himself to all licentiousness, that he might from 
all parts scrape up money for his vast expenses, at the in- 
stigation of Cardinal Lorenzo Puccio, sent his bulls of indul- 
gences, wherein he promised the expiation of all sin and 
eternal life, through all the kingdoms of the Christian (papal) 
world ; and there was a price set, what every one should 
pay, according to the grievousness of his sins. 'He appoint- 
ed collectors and treasuries through the provinces, with 
preachers to recommend to the people the greatness of the 
benefit; and those did mightily extol their power in draw- 
ing souls out of purgatory ; shamelessly spending the money 

* " Quod latere, nee prae multitudine quaeat, nee prae impudentia que- 
rat ; hsec inquam tolerantia, altius radices egit, permissis alicubi sub an- 
nuo censu ciericis atque laicis cum suis concubinis cohabitare, «&c., O 
«:em execrandara ! De per sec. cap. 29. 
28 



326 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASI". 

every day in brothels and taverns, at dice and most filthy 
uses." Thuan. Histor. 1. i. p. 13. 

The sums for the several sins, were stated in the Taxa. 
Cancel. Apost. in fol. 36, 37, 38, 41. Such sins of incest, 
debauchery, perjury, murder, &c. &c., are therein men- 
tioned, as are so shocking that I must not even write them ; 
and the sum for each is but a few shillings ! It has been de 
nied that there has been any such book ; but it was printed 
in Paris in 1520, and Espenceus, a papal writer, in Tit. c. 
i. digr. 2, p. 479, tells us, that it was openly sold ; and thus 
remarks, " It is a wonder, that, at this time, in this schism, 
such an infamous index, of such filthy and to be abhorred 
wickedness, is not suppressed. There is neither in Ger- 
many, Switzerland, nor in any other place where there is 
a defection from the Roman See, a book more to their re- 
proach. It teacheth and encourageth such wickedness as 
we may be afraid to hear named, and a price is set to all 
buyers ; and yet it is not suppressed by the favourers of the 
court of Rome." 

"A number of Roman princes assembled at Nurembnrgh, 
an. 1522, and 1523," saith Fasciculus Rerum, "and stated 
a hundred grievances : the third is about the increase of the in- 
tolerable burden of indulgences, by which, under a show 
of piety to churches, or for an expedition against the Turks, 
the popes suck the marrow of their estates: and, which 
heightens the imposture, say they, by their hireling criers 
and preachers Christian piety is banished, while, to advance 
their markets, they cry up their wares, for the granting of 
wonderful, unheard of, peremptory pardons, not only of 
sins already committed, but of sins which shall be com- 
mitted, and also the sins of the dead; so that, by the sale 
of these wares, together with being spoiled of our money. 
Christian piety is extinguished, while any one may pro- 
mise himself impunity, upon paying the rate that is set 
upon the sin he hath a mind to commit.* Hence, whore- 
* Cheminitius records, Exara. Con. Trid. p. 745, " That a certain noble- 
man told Tetzelius, the chief preacher of indulgences, that he had a mind 
to commit a very heinous sin, and desired an indulgence or present par- 
don for it ; for a great sum of money he granted it ; the nobleman pays 
it down and receives his bull. Afterwards this nobleman took occasion 
to meet Tetzelius in a certain wood, and, breaking open his chest of in- 
dulgences, robbed him. When Tetzelius threatened him with all man- 
ner of curses, the nobleman showed him his bull that he had paid so 



POLLUTION PROMOTED. 327 

(loms, incests, adulteries, perjuries, murders, thefts, &e., 
and all manner of wickedness, have at once their offspring. 
What wickedness will mortal man be afraid to commit, when 
they promise themselves license and impunity, in sinning 
while they live, and for a little more money, indulgences 
may be purchased for them when they are dead." Fasci- 
culus Rerura expectend. fol. 177, 178 : see also Dr. Annes- 
ley's Ser. Indul. p. 20, printed an. 1675. 

What Nicholas Clemangis, a papal archdeacon, {lib. de 
corrupto statu ecclesias, an. 1417, upon the celibate orders 
— the corrupt state of the church,) writes, about cardinals, 
prelates, monks, and nuns, and their horrible aboifiinations, 
is enough to shock any tender mind, even to read of them. 
Of the men he says, " Ebrios et incontinentissimos vice 
conjugum domi,^^ ^-c. That being drunkards, and of all 
men most incontinent, instead of wives they shamelessly 
kept prostitutes," &c. &c. But what he says of nuns and 
their nunneries, I must not even mention. And what Speed 
writes, in Hist. Mag. Brit, of the awful discoveries made in 
the time of Henry VHI. in many monasteries in England 
of the most frightful pollutions, I shall pass by. Volumes 
would be required to tell all their abominations ; and in this, 
they prove the exact fulfilment of this prophecy, concerning 
the overflowing of pollution that was so extensively to 
defile the apostate church. 

I shall add the testimony of a canonized female, St. 
Bridget, on Rev. xviii. 21. "Thou art a destroyer of the 
souls of the elect," said she to the pope, crucifigis et per- 
dis animas. "Thou art like unto Lucifer, more unjust than 
Pilate, more savage than Judas, more abominable than the 
Jews. Thy throne shall be sunk like a great stone cast 
into the sea, that stoppeth not till it shall have arrived at 
the very depths of the ocean." Brigitt. in Rev. 1. 1, c. 41. 

We must not pass over the very reverend and famous F. 
Petrarch, who flourished an. 1350, nearly two centuries 
before Luther, and of whom the learned Trithemius saith, 
" Te Fetrarcha, vir in divinis scripturis eruditus,^^ &dc. &c. 
" F. Petrarch, poet laureate and archdeacon of Parma, was 
a man deeply skilled in the Scriptures, and a reviver of long 
decayed learning." Trith. de Scrip. Eccles. 

dear for, and, laughing at him, told him this was the very sin he had a 
mind to commit, when he was so fully absolved." 



328 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY 

SoKSTET 93. 

Del' empia Babylonia, ond' e fugitta 
Ogni vergogna, ond' bene e fuori 
Albergo di dolor, madre d' errori 
Son fugit io per allongar la vita. 

SoxsET 149. Tom. 4, Basil 
Fontana di dolore, albergo d'ira, 
Scola d'errori, e tempio d'heresia, 
Gia Roma, hor Babylonia, falsa e ria 
Per cui tanto si piagne ; e si sospira 
O fucina d'inganni, o prigion d'ira 
Ove' iben more, e' i mal si nutre e cria 
■Di vivi inferno, un gran mira col fia 
Se Christo teco al fine non sad ira. 

THUS OF OLD TRANSLATED. 
Sonnet 93. 
Out of wicked Babylon 
By God's help I am gone, 
From which all shame is banished, 
From which all good is vanished, 
The lodge of grief and misery. 
The mother of all heresy. 

Sonnet 149. 
Well-spring of grief, and fierce wrath's hospital, 
The school of error, temple of heresy, 
Once Rome, now Babylon, most wicked, all 
With sighs and tears bewail thy piteous fall, 
Thou mother of deceit, bulwark of tyranny. 
Truth's persecutrix, nurse of iniquity. 
The living's hell ; a miracle it will be 
If Christ in fury come not against thee, 
Most shameless w e. 

Pope Pius V. was so stung with those sonnets, that he 
caused three of them to be erased, which, however, escape 
in Basil's edition. And in prose he thus wrote of Rome: 
" Famosa dicam, an infamis meretrix fornicata cum regibus 
terrae, &c. "Art thou not that famous or infamous harlot 
which committeth fornication with the kings of the earth ? 
Truly thou art that adulteress, I say thou art, that the sacred 
evangelist in spirit saw sitting upon many waters. What 
canst thou expect thy end to be but that same which St. 
John prophesied, ' Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 
and made a habitation for devils.' But let us, my friend, 
with the same apostle, attend to another voice coming down 



IMAGE WORSHIP. 329 

from heaven, Ne participes sitis dellctorum ejus; Come 
out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her iniqui- 
ties, that you may not receive of her plagues." Petrarcha, 
epist. 16, torn. 2, e. 729, &c. 

Now, all these were long, even ages before Luther, and 
they spake as Protestants do now, and as every man of 
truth must ! 

Now, the conclusion is, what church in the world has 
made laws as above, directly opposed to the will of God 
and the practices of his servants in all ages of the world, 
and which thus naturally and immediately leads to all these 
enormities and fornications ? None surely but the church 
of Rome alone. Hence this fatal mark is hers exclusively. 

11th mark. Idolatries. — There are five or more sorts 
of idolatry taught by the pope and his church. I. Of images 
and relics. 2. Of saints. 3. Of angels. 4. Of the beast. 
5. Of his image. " They repented not of the work of theit 
hands, that they should not worship devils,* (Kat, and, or) — 
even idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of 
wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk," &c., 
" neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sor- 
ceries, nor of iheir fornications, nor of their thefts." With 
ignorance of God's word are all those enormities, idolatry, 
lewdness, superstitions, and imposture, fitly called sorce- 
ries and thefts, very naturally connected. Hence, such as 
fatten on the latter will, of course, earnestly maintain the 
former. Rev. ix. 20. 

What church is it that, in the very face of this divine 
prediction, has made a positive law, to which the clergy are 
sworn — " That the images of Christ, of the virgin Mary, 
and of other saints, shall be had, consecrated, retained, and 
duly worshipped by kissing them, and with uncovered head 
bowing down before them and their relics ? And that de- 
parted saints should be invocated ?" Trent creed, and sess. 
25. How flatly opposed to God is this law of Rome ! 

Have they not therefore made images of wood, brass, gold, 
silver, &c. ? See p. 260. Have they not consecrated them, 

* Religious worship to any creatures is, by Jehovah, called " the wor- 
ship of new gods and of devils, as being the authors of it, and after whom 
they are said ' to go a whoring.' " Lev. xvii, 7. 1 Cor. x. 20. Hence 
all who would not be thus guilty as devil-worshippers must never bow 
before any image. 

28* 



330 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

and to honour them gone far on pilgrimages to some of them, 
to Loretto, and many such places, and there worshipped 
them with religious worship, which they call Doulia, or what 
else? Cassander owns, '■''the worship paid by the people 
to images and statues was equal to the worst of the an- 
cient pagans.''^'* Polydore Virgil and others say the same. 
Much, indeed, might be said on this point; but these things 
being manifest, abundantly prove that in this respect their 
own law and practice are a clear fulfilment of the predicted 
apostasy. Add to this that history informs us of images 
made so as to speak, &c. " The crucifix in St. Paul's, 
made by Cavellini in 1360, spoke to St. Bridget, and seve- 
ral in Rome did the same. Another, at St. Mary's Trans- 
pont, spoke frequently with the images of St. Peter and St. 
Paul ; others have bled, and some wept : one at the church 
of the Holy Ghost wept such a flood of tears that the monks 
could scarcely keep them dry,"t &c. The curious image 
called the Rood of Grace, opened at St. Paul's Cross in 
London, and by which the people had been deceived, 
being thus exposed, greatly forwarded the Reformation. 

I shall only add the testimony of Gregory Giraldus, a 
Roman Catholic writer of the seventeenth century, thus : 
" This certainly I will not hide, that we called Christians, 
as were the Romans once, were without images in the 
church called primitive.''^ Yet, so intent were the papal 
clergy on the worship of images in England, that, as Sir 
Edward Coke writes, (Inst. 3, p. 49,) an express law was 
made, '•'■That any persons who affirm images ought not to 
be worshipped, be holden in strotig prison until they take 
an oath and swear to ivorship images.'''' Rich. ii. cap. 5. 
But God in the second commandment forbids it; nor did 
Christ ever teach it, nor the apostles practise it ; and tlie 
ancients, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Arnobius, &c., counted 
it idolatry ; and as that is of the devil, it follows, then, that 
the teachers of it stand opposed to God and Jesus Christ, 

* Nihil a nostris reliqui factum esse videatur, «fec. Geo. Cassand. in 
consult, de imagin. &c., p. 175, 176. 

f Voyage to Italy, p. 25. See also a Dialogue, by the Rev. Blanco 
White, lately a priest, well worthy of attention. 

t Illud certe non prfetermittam, nos, dico Christianos, ut aliquando 
. Roinanns, fuisse sine imaginibus in primitiva quaj vocatur ecclesia. Lib. 
1, syn. 1, Hist, deorum. 



INVOCATION CONFUTED. 331 

and promole Satan's cause. Having handled it when dis- 
cussing the worship of the wafer, &c., I here cease. 

Invocation of Angels and Saints. — This is another 
idolatry ! I have touched on it, (p. 290,) on that of the 
host worship, (p. 243,) and shall now demonstrate, that 
neither did the council of Trent, nor its great champion, 
Dr. Milner, believe themselves in reference to this dogma ; 
and thus shall set it at rest. Its decree is as follows : 

*'The holy council of Trent commands all the bishops 
and pastors, that, according to the usage of the Catholic 
church, received from the earliest times of the Christian 
religion, the consent of fathers, and decrees of holy coun- 
cils, they should diligently instruct the faithful in the invo- 
cation and intercession of saints, &;c., teaching them, that the 
saints reigning with Christ offer prayers to God for men ; 
and that it is good and useful humbly to invoke them and 
(confifgere) fly to their prayers and assistance, to obtain 
(beneficia) favours from God, through Jesus Christ his 
Son,"* &c. And the Trent catechism teacheth the same; 
"That Ave should pray to the saints to be our advocates to 
obtain from God for us what we need."t 

No advocate, whatever, can support this doctrine! All 
that Drs. Gother, Challoner, Milner, and the rest, have said 
on it is as empty as air. This we shall see presendy when 
I shall come to deal with Dr. Milner.J We shall put it to 
a short issue: If God never taught this doctrine, it must 
either be ivrong, or Christ was in fault in not teaching it. 
If no man will say the latter, then every one must grant the 
former, and therefore that to teach it is great wickedness. 
Now we fearlessly challenge the whole of them to prove, 
that Moses or the prophets, Christ or his apostles ever taught 
any of these matters. Let them search the sacred records 
of the Jews — the law, the prophets, and the psalms, and 
their most ancient writers, Philo Judaeus, Josephus, &c. ; 

* Mandat sancta synodus omnibus episcopis, et ceteris docendi munus 
curamque sustinentibus, ut juxta Catholics et apostolicse ecclesise usum, 
a primaevis Christianae reiigionis temporibus receptura, sanctorumq. 
Patrum consensionem, et sanctorum conciliorum decreta, in primis de 
sanctorum intercessione, invocatione, reliquaruni honors, et legitime 
imaginum usu, fideles diligenter instruant, &c. Con. Trid. sess. 25, de 
invocat. 

f Pars iv. Quis orandus. 

% Milner, End of Controversy, letter 33. 



332 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

and let their litanies, their Mishna or traditions be examined, 
and it will be found they shall fail in producing from the 
whole one solitary precept or example for invocating angels 
or saints departed. Nor in the whole New Testament can 
they find any precept to enjoin, example to commend, or 
one promise to encourage such doctrine. And if not, and 
if God be infinitely right, we again insist, it must be infinite- 
ly wicked to teach the like. 

That neither did our Lord nor his aposdes teach this doc- 
trine is even confessed. Saith Alanus : " It was not yet the 
time, in the infancy of the faith, to teach the world this doc- 
trine, lest the heathen should be led to think that we wor- 
shipped a plurality of gods, and had merely changed their 
names, hut retained the same worship."* Eckius writes : 
" Had the apostles and evangelists taught the worship of 
the saints, it would have been imputed to their pride, as 
seeking the honour of being after death worshipped as saints. 
The Holy Ghost therefore would not have the invocation of 
the saints expressly taught by the Scriptures.'*! Salmeron 
makes the same apology .i And Cardinal Perron, to mention 
no more, tells the same. 

After having made diligent search for this doctrine in the 
three first centuries, but in vain, he owns openly: "That 
in the authors of those times next the apostles he could find 
no trace of this doctrine of invocation;" adding, however, by 
way of excuse, " That most of their writings were lost." 
Lost, indeed ! and so much of their writings still among us. 
Here is evidence tangible, irrefragable ! and that, added to 
the silence of the Scriptures, amounts to a demonstration 
that Christ never taught this doctrine, and that neither did 
the council of Trent, nor yet any other informed writer ever 
believe he or his apostles ever taught it. So, then, " this 
doctrine was not taught by Christ or the apostles, and yet 

* Nondum erat tempus in ipsis fidei exordiis earn munJo doctrinam 
divnlgandi, ne gentiles arbiirarentiir plures nos Deos colere, &c. Alanus 
Copus. dial. 3, fol. 239. Whit, de idol. p. 194. 

■f Si apostoli et e^angelistae docuissent sanctos venerandos, arrogantiae 
iis datum fuisset, ac si post mortem gloriara illam qusesivissent sanctos 
venerandos. Noiuit ergo Spiritus Sanctus expressis Scripturis doceri in- 
vocationem sanctorum. Ecki, in Enchirid. loc. com. ex edit. A. Weis- 
senhorn. 

T Salm. in 1 Tim. 2, disp. 8. 



INVOCATION CONFUTED. 333 

it was tanght in the earliest ages of Christianity!!!" It 
was, and it was not. 

Having these proofs before us, we shall now return to the 
Trent council to look at it fully. They tell us : " They re- 
ceived this doctrine of invocation from the earliest times of 
Christianity." Now we appeal to all men: Did they be- 
lieve a sentence of this? How could they? impossible. 
Hence, they have most conclusively decreed falsely, when 
they afRrmed, " they received this usage of invocation from 
the earhest times of Christianity." 

Again: In decreeing "it good and profitable for the faith- 
ful to invocate the saints and fly to their assistance," when 
they could not think that Christ would neglect to teach any 
thing that was thus good for souls, and when they well 
Knew that he never taught this doctrine ; as is even con- 
fessed he never did, and for this reason, " that it was too 
like paganism ;" then most clear is it, they did not believe 
this doctrine good, nor themselves right in teaching it, nor 
that a word they wrote in its praise had any truth in it ! I 
say, they could not believe it '■^ good and profitable,'''* with- 
out first believing Christ and his apostles were wrong in 
not teaching it. Hence, this dogma involves them in neces- 
sary blasphemy against Christ ! ! ! 

In the third place: Since all priests are on oath to believe 
"that any doctrine that Christ or his apostles taught not, or 
that is opposed to the gospel, is accursed," and as they 
could not believe what is accursed is good and profitable 
to men's souls, and it being palpable, and even confessed 
that this invocation was not taught of God, then it follows 
they did not believe this usage was from Christ, or that it is 
good or profitable to any soul of man. 

Once again : When the teaching a doctrine as good, which 
God never taught, amounts to a direct accusation of Him as 
being wrong, and therefore involves blasphemy ; and when 
our Lord declares, ^'All things whatsoever you shall ask 
in prayer, believing, ^/ow shall receive.'''''^ "Whatsoever 
ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may 
be glorified in the Son ; if you ask any thing in my name I 

* Matt. xxi. 22 ; viii. 7. John xiv. 6 — 14. On the Lord's prayer St. 
Augustine and Aquinas have these fine thoughts : "Dicendum quod 
orutlo Dominica perfectlsshna ed, quia sicut Augustinus dicit ad Pro- 
bum, si rede et congruenles oramus, nihil aliud dicere pussumus quam 



334 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

will do it." ^^ Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that 
seeketh findeth." " I am the way, the truth, and the life ; 
no man cometh unto the Father but 1:)y me." I say, when 
Christ never taught invocation, and thus promises to every 
humble, praying believer " all things needful for him," w^iat 
more than this could any one even wish for ? and when he 
affirms " there is no other way to obtain any thing from God 
but by Him only," how could any man in his senses hope 
to succeed by another way, even by invocation? Doth it 
not follow, then, that they who take this way of invocation, 
do in effect tell our Lord to his face, AVe do not believe thy 
word, or that thy way is the good and right way, nor that 
our way is wrong? And what less is this than telling the 
King of heaven that he is not to be believed ? Now, if this 
be the extremity of wickedness, infidelity, and madness, is 
it not by every rule of reason and logic undeniable, that they 
who teach and they who use this invocation of angels or 
saints, do necessarily involve themselves in all this wicked- 
ness and direct blasphemy against heaven's great King ? 
Hence, can no man, not bent on his own ruin, touch thib 
most corrupt doctrine forever ! 

In fine, whereas this invocation doctrine thus clearly in- 
cludes in it such vast wickedness as to charge the Lord of 
glory with neglect and wrong for not teaching it, insults 
him, and absolutely gives him the lie, and blasphemes him ; 
as no angel, or saint in heaven, nor the blessed virgin, surely, 
would for an instant acquiesce in thus degrading the Re- 
deemer of men, it must follow, then, that to all the heavenly 
family — angels, saints, and the blessed virgin, who is one 
of them — " this invocation of saints and flying to their assist- 
ance," supposing them conscious of it, must be absolutely 
and conclusively the most hideous insult and abomination ! 
indisputably so. For whatever goes to blaspheme Him, as 
this evil doctrine doth, must insult them. For them, there- 
fore, or any of them to unite with such invocation to obtain 
benefits for their ill-taught suppliants, from the Father, 
through the Son, in a way the Son never taught, and thus 

guod in ista oraiione Dominica positum est." Aquinas Epist. 121, c. 
J2, q. 83, art. 9. 

It must be acknowledge^, that the Lord's prayer is the most perfect 
of any ; for if we pray rightly and consistently, it is not possible for U3 
to say any other thing than what is found in that prayer of the Lord. 



THE TRENT COUNCIL CONFUTED. 335 

insulting him, is a calculation that in madness surpasses 
any thing that has been ever heard of among men ! 

If this reasoning be just, if it cannot by any means be re- 
sisted, what becomes of this doctrine of the Trent council, 
and all these prayers to saints all over the world ? and what 
the situation of those multitudes who unhappily follow 
them? It makes the heart shudder to think of it. And 
above all, what of all the rosaries and supplications to the 
blessed virgin found in all papal prayer-books, in that of 
" the Devout Heart," the " Cord of St. Francis," &c. &c., 
but more especially in " the Scapular of the blessed Lady 
of Mount Carmei, a new edition of which — five thousand 
copies — has been so lately as last year published in this 
city, by the very Rev. Thomas Coleman, provincial of the 
C. Carmelites ? I say, what of all those ? are they pleasing 
to God, profitable to men, or grateful to the virgin, if she 
can know any thing about them ? or are they not the exact 
reverse in every instance ? And what of the stories in this 
said book, " of the blessed virgin's appearing, surrounded 
with a great number of happy spirits, to Simon Stock, in 
England, in the year 1251 ; of her giving him a piece of 
brown cloth for a habit or scapular ; of the order of which 
she made him general ; of the full pardon of sin to all duly 
taking the habit, on the day of receiving it; of the prayers 
and rosaries she directed to be used in her honour ; of the 
bulls she enjoined Pope John XIII. , (fee, to send forth for 
the benefit of her servants ; of the certainty of their salva- 
tion ; of her going down on every Saturday to purgatory to 
fetch any of her own out of it she might find there ; and of 
the wonderful miracles wrought by the scapular, and all con- 
firmed by twenty-eight popes," or more, as states said book; 
of all this, I say, what now must be thought? Is not the 
whole an insult to piety, and, as it regards the virgin, &c., a 
whole heap of the most unqualified falsehoods, and, I repeat 
it, an abomination to the blessed virgin, if she knows any 
thing about it ? Upon the whole, has a more hideous, God- 
provoking, idolatrous, soul-deceiving, and absurd doctrine 
ever appeared ? 

Doctor Milner's defence : Yes, pious reader, this dogma 
has its multitudes of advocates ! But as Dr. Milner's i^ so 
famous, we shall see what he can do. And I musi affirm 
it, if any stronger conviction of the utter enormity of this 



336 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

invocation business was wanted, this doctor at once supplies 
It, inasmuch as the method, the desperate method he in its 
support adopts, is to change the truth of God into a lie, and 
the Creator into a creature ! But he must speak for himself. 
He has a pompous letter (33d) upon it, full of authorities, as 
usual, and therefore of truth, as one at first sight might 
imagine ; but come close to it and it sinks at once. I pass 
by his scolding, boasting, and many etceteras of the kind, 
and come at once to the ground, — to what is tangible. He 
wishes to persuade us, that Christ and his apostles taught 
the invocation, which we see confessed, "that they did not 
teach, lest Christianity should be thought to be heathen- 
ism!" Well, passing this, we will hear him. Saithhe: 
" St. Paul requested the prayers of the saints, as Job's three 
friends his prayers." Now, all this was on earth, and there- 
fore by God's will? What, then, has it to do with invo- 
cating those not on earth ? Here, therefore, he is foiled. 
Finding no solid place for the sole of his foot in the New, 
he tries the Old Testament ; he fixes upon the angel of the 
covenant, as follows : 

Saith he : " That it is lawful and profitable to invoke the 
prayers of the angels, is plain from Jacob's asking and ob- 
taining the angeVs blessing. Gen. xxxii. 26, and from his 
invoking his own angel to bless Joseph's sons, Gen. xlvii. 
1 6. Joshua fell on his face and worshipped the angel, 
Josh. V. 14. The same is plain from Rev. v. 8, where the 
four and twenty elders in heaven are said to have golden 
vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints." 
What wonderful proofs ! So, then, by subverting truth, by 
turning God into a created angel, as the patient reader by 
turning to the passages may see, this erudite divine would 
maintain his doctrine ! The Person whom Jacob wrestled 
with, and to whom he made supplication, is called "a man," 
" God," " an angel," meaning " Christ, the angel of the 
covenant," as we shall presently see by comparing Genesis 
xxxii. 24 — 28 — 30; xxxi. 11, 13,andxxxv. 9 — 11, together. 
"And God said unto him. Thy name is Jacob, &c. I am 
God Almighty." See the same case in Hosea xii. 4, 5, 
" He (Jacob) had power over the angel, and prevailed ; he 
wept and made supplication unto Him ; he found Him in 
Dethei, and there He spake with us ; even the Lord God 
•if hosts," &c. O doctor, where was thy blush? Farther, 



DR. MILNER CONFUTED. 337 

says he, " Jacob invoked his own angel.'''' But hear Jacob 
for himself, Gen. xlviii. 15, 16, "God of my fathers — the 
God which fed me all my life long to this day ; the angel 
which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." Now, 
(hd the doctor beliexe that a created angel is a Redeemer, 
is God? If not, did he not deliberately wrong his con- 
science ? Only, look into Joshua v. 13, 14, and vi. 2, where 
it is plain, that the '* Prince, or Captain," — " the man," 
whom Joshua worshipped was no created being, but *' the 
Lord,''^ who said to him : " See, I have given into thine 
hand Jerico, and the king thereof." Reader, what sayest 
thou now to the doctor's honesty, who, when he could not 
otherwise uphold his cause, desperately turns the truth of 
God into a lie, and God into a creature ? How audacious, 
how infidel, and how desperate of heart must have been the 
men, the divines that resorted to such a course, thus to prop 
up their papacy ! ! ! And although thus detected and ex- 
posed again and again, yet they blush not after all to use the 
very same impious arguments, over and over again; for it 
seems they can find no other track to take ! But the an- 
cients also fall upon him, as doth his own oath too. Let 
us hear : 

Novatian sailh, "If any heretic, perversely striving against 
the truth, would, in all these examples, have us to under- 
stand an angel proprrly, or in this expression contend for 
such a sense, he must assuredly in this be broken by the 
force of truth."* 

St. Cyril writes, " If the enemies of Christ deem Jacob 
a holy man, and one endued with a prophetic spirit when 
he spake these words, they might be well ashamed to charge 
him with so gross ai error, as that of invoking an angel 
with GoD."t 

And St. Athanasius saith, as did St. Cyril too, " That 
Jacob spake not to a creature, or of a created angel, because 
lie saith ' The angel that delivered me from all evils,'' but 

* Ac si aliquis haereticus pertinaciter obluctans adversus veritatem 
voluerit in his omnibus e xemplis, jorojone angelutn aut intelligere, aut 
intelligendum esse contenderit, in hoc quoque viribus veritatis frangatur 
necesse est. Novat. de Trinit. cap. 1.5. 

"^A, K-/.1 Ttio'Tiuiuartv OV'TO); ayi-^v ctvSg-x yrytvh^'At to ]aK..«o, cScc. Cyril. Alex- 
andr. Thesaur. p. 1 1 G, 

oq 



338 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

of the ANGEL of the covenant, is manifest." Orat. 4. contr 
Arrian. p. 260. 

What the doctor says (Rev. v. 8, and viii. 4) of the twenty- 
four elders, &c. presenting odours or prayers of saints to God, 
is nothing to the purpose. Bede answers well, saying, on 
the tenth verse, " Here it is more declared, That the living 
creatures (^«a) and the four-and-twenty elders are the church, 
which is redeemed by the blood of Christ and gathered out 
of the nations." Also he showeth what heaven they are in, 
thus, " they shall reign on earth." Haymo saith just the 
same. See Fulke in loco. 

Dionysius Carthusianus writes, as doth Albertus,on Rev. 
viii. 4, " That the catholic doctors by this angel understand 
Christ, who is the angel of the great counsel, (Isa. Ixiii. 9,) 
and who by the mystery of his incarnation came into the 
world, and stood before the altar, or upon the altar of the 
cross, in the sight of the church."* And B. Viegas, a 
Jesuit, saith, " We may easily perceive that this angel is 
Christ, because the thing here spoken of him can agree to 
no other but Christ; for who but he could with so great 
majesty offer up to God the incense, i. e. the prayers of 
the universal church ? Who besides him is able out of the 
perfuming pan to send down into the earth \he fiery coals 
of divine charity, and to inflan\e peiiple with the burning 
graces of the Holy Spirit ?'"i With these agree Ambrose, 
Primasius, Bede, &c. 

Irenaeus saith, Ecclesia Dei nee invocationibus angelicis 
facit aliquid, &c. " The church of God doth nothing by 

* Doctores Catholici per angelum istum intelligunt Christum, qui 
magni consilii angelus, et per incarnationis mysterium venit in mundum, 
stetitque ante altare, id est, in conspectu ecclesiae. Dionys. Carthus. in 
Apoc. viii. 

■\ Nee vero recte quiJam e recentioribus arguraentantur, angelum 
istum Christum esse non posse, quod Chiristus nunquam absolute dici- 
tur: satis enim est ut ex consequentibus facile intelligi potest Chris- 
tum esse, quse nisi Christo alteri apte accommodari non possunt; cujus 
enim alterius est universse ecclesite incensa, hoc est, orationes in thuri- 
bulo aureo tantte majestatis specie patri offerrel Cujus praeterquam 
Christi fuit de igne quo thuribulum aureum erat impletum, partem in 
terras mississe, easque divini amoris igne inflammasse 1 Apparet autem 
Christus sacerdotis personam gerens, ut ejus pro nobis apud patrem 
intercessio atque interpellatio monstratur. Vieg. in Apoc. viii. sec. 2. 
Ambros. Sup. Apoc. Vis. 3, c. 8. Primas. in Apoc. viii. Bede, super 
Apoc. lib 3. 



DR. MILNER AND INVOCATION CONFUTED. 339 

the invocations of angel?, but purely, simply, and openly, 
addresseth her prayers to God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
Iren. 1. 3, c. 27. 

Lactantius writes. Nullum sibi konorem tribui volunt 
angeli quorum omnis honor in Deo est, &c. '< Angels 
will have no honour bestowed on them, because all their 
honour is in God, and they have nothing to do but obey." 
1. 2, c. 16. 

Again, Qui supplicant mortuis rationem hominum nan 
habenf. "They who supplicate the dead possess not the 
reason of men." Insit. Divin. lib. 2, e. 18. 

Once more, this father affirms, " Oratio quds non Jit per 
Christum,, non solum, non potest clelere peccatum sed etiam 
ipsa fit peccatum.''^ " Any prayer,, not made through 
Christ, cannot blot out sin, but is itself sin." Psal. 108. 

The council of Laodicea, an. 364, decreed, O^t ov' 6ft 

^piS'tiavo(; zyxataXsiTiBiv Tf^jv ixx%.t6iav tov 0?od, &C. '* That 

Christians ought not to forsake the church of God, and 
depart aside and invocate angels. If any man be given to 
this private idolatry, let him be accursed ; because he hath 
forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and 
betaken himself to idolatry." Can. 139. Codex Canonum 
Eccles. Univers. 

Theodoret, on this canon, writes, 'Ot irw vo/tw Gwi^yowei^ 
scat I'otij O/yyfXo'uj li'^fiv auT'ocj si,<3'y]yopovv'to, &C. "They who 
were zealous for the law persuaded men to worship angels, 
because, say they, the law was given by them. This did 
they counsel, pretending humility — saying, * that it was fit 
We should procure God's favour by the means of angels.* 
And because they taught men to worship angels, he, (the 
apostle) enjoineth the contrary, that they should adorn 
their words and works with the commemoration of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and send up thanksgivings to God, even 
the Father, by Him, and not by angels. The Synod of 
Laodicea also followed this rule, and desiring to heal that 
old disease, made a law that they should not invocate 
'angels, nor forsake our Lord Jesus Christ." Theodor. in 
Col. cap. 2. 

Two points here are worthy of notice. 1 . The old disease 
of invo eating angels, &c., to which some Judaizing Chris- 
tians were thus inclining, was just the old pagan idolatry 
in a new guise. 2. That as the apostle pronounced 'those 



340 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

Avho added circumcision to the gospel, fallen from grace,' — 
or, in effect, forsaking Christ and his gospel ; so did the 
Laodicean fathers decree those Christians, who used the 
invocation of angels with the mediation of Christ, as for- 
sakers of Christ and his church, and accursed. 

Saith Chrysostom, " Why dost thou gape after angels ? 
they are our fellow-servants. Kara &toi> Ttavta rcparrsrs /.tv 
rovs ayys7.ov5 fTtsiciayits. ' Do all things by God, and intro- 
duce not angels.' Unto whom wilt thou flee for help ? Is 
it unto Abraham ? He will not hear thee : worship and pray 
to Him alone who hath power to blot out thine obligation 
{to wrath,) and to quench the flame." "It was the devil, 
envying the honour we have of addressing ourselves to God 
immediately, that, in order to rob us of this honour, brought 
in ra -tuiv ayyi7.Lov, the service of angels."* Hom. 3, on 
Hab. c. 1 ; hom. 18 on Rom; hom. 9 on Coloss. 

And, again, " AVhen thou hast need to sue unto man, 
thou art forced to deal with door-keepers first, and to 
entreat courtiers, parasites, or the like, to go with thee a 
long way about, but ivith God, (s^t 5f tov ©sod ovhsv toiavtov 
f.r>ttv) there is no such thing: without money, without cost, 
he yieldeth to thy prayer. Mark the M'isdom of the woman 

• The advocates of purgatory contend, That in the writings of St. 
Chrysostom, and of other fathers, and in ancient liturgies — that ascribed 
to St. Mark, &c. are found prayers made for the dead ; and that from 
this, purgatory is inferred. I answer, such prayers were made, but the 
inference is not honest ! for they saw that those prayers were meant, 
not to, but for the saints in heaven, who, they thought, however mis- 
takenly, might still be benefited by the prayers of the church. This is 
evident by the form of those prayers, in the liturgy of the church of 
Constantinople, ascribed to St. Chrysostom, &c. " We ofler unto thee, 
O Lord, this reasonable service for those who are at rest in the faith — 
our forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, evangelists, 
preachers, and every spirit perfected in the faith ; but especially for our 
most holy, immaculate, most blessed lady, the mother of God, and ever 
virgin Mary. — Remember all them who are fallen asleep in the hope of 
the resurrection of eternal life, give them to rest where the Hght of thy 
countenance presideth." Again, "Lord make the souls of thy patriarchs, 
prophets, and apostles, &c., to rest in the tabernacles of thy saints, in 
ihy kingdoni, conferring on them all the good things promised." Chry- 
sost. torn. 6, p. 998. Biblioth. Patrum. Gr. Lat, tom. 2, p. 35. Now, 
did Dr. Milner, &c,, infer from these prayers, that the apostles and the 
virgin were in purgatory, and also in the kingdom of God at the same 
time 1 If not, how was his inference for purgatory other than deliberate 
dishonesty to serve a purpose 1 Shame ! 



DR. MILNER AND INVOCATION CONFUTED. 341 

of Canaan, she doth not entreat James, nor beseech John, 
nor come to Peter, but brake through the whole of them, 
saying in herself, ' I have no need of such mediators, but, 
taking repentance with me for a spokesman, come to tho 
fountain itself: for this cause did he take flesh, that I might 
have boldness to speak to him. I have no need of any other 
mediator. Have thou mercy on me.' " S. Chrysos. Dimiss. 
Chan. tom. 5, de Fcenit. serm. 7. 

St. Augustine saith. Quern invenirem qui me reconcilia- 
ret tibi, &;c. " Whom can I find to reconcile me to thee, 
O Lord ? Should I have gone to the angels, with what 
prayer ? with what sacraments ? Many, as I hear, have 
tried these things, and have fallen into the desire of curious 
visions, and were counted worthy of delusions." Confess. 
1. 10, c. 42. Again, Noii sit nobis religio cultus homi- 
num morfuorum, &c. " To worship men who are dead, 
should not be any part of our religion ; for, if they lived 
piously, they desire not such honours ; they are to be 
honoured for imitation." De vera Relig. c. SS. 

Again, [de Civ. Dei, lib. 8,) he writes. Si rex constifue- 
rit intercessorem, "If a king has appointed one certain 
intercessor only, he is not pleased that any causes should 
be brought to him by others : so, when Christ is appointed 
our High Priest and Intercessor, why do we seek others ?" 
How just was this reasoning of the fathers against the folly 
— the wickedness of seeking any mediation in the world of 
spirits, but that of Christ only. 

The ancient fathers, farther, deemed it absurd and idola- 
try to invocate any in the invisible world save God only. 
Saith Origen, " It is an absurdity, having that God with us 
and nigh at hand, who filleth heaven and earth, to go about 
to pray to that which is not omnipresent."^^ Clemens 
Alex, saith, " Since God alone is good, it is reasonable we 
should solicit him alone ; not angels or others, for the dona- 
tion and continuance of good things," &c.t 

He (Origen, 1. 5) saith on the question about angels, 
"Although the Scriptures sometimes call angels gods, it is 

* AtSTTSV iTTl TSU TTM^aTCLVTOi; TOV CV^'XVOV Krtl TUV y.lV OVTOS ^sS"' HuOOV KcU 

7r\>i(rtov »/ua>v Tuy^nvovnc, &c. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. 5, p. 239. 

■[■ EiKOTu; Ivo; ovto; rou ayoiB-iu Qiov Trctg cturcu /uovcu rcev uydidraiv ia (j.^ 
So^nvM ret ii TrdL^ifjLUVcu iu)(oy.i^A ii/uu; t£ kou ctyyiMt, &C. Clem. Alex. 
Strom. 1. 7, p. 721. 

29* 



342 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

not that we ought to give them any worship ; for all pray- 
ers, and supplications, and intercessions, and thanksgivings 
are to be sent up to God the Lord of all, by the High Priest 
xvho is above all angels, being the living Word and God. 
For to invocate angels, seeing we comprehend not the 
knowledge of them, which is above the reach of man, is 
unreasonable. And suppose that the knowledge of them, 
which is wonderful and secret, could be comprehended, 
this very knowledge, declaring their nature to us, and the 
charge over which every one of them is set, would not per- 
mit us to pray unto any other but God the Lord of all, 
through our Saviour the Son of God. We judge we ought 
not to pray to them that pray, since they would rather send 
us to God whom they pray to, than bring us down to them- 
selves, or divide our praying virtue from God to them- 
selves." "And, (lib. 8,) if Celsus will yet have us to pro- 
cure the good will of any other, after Him who is God 
over all, let him consider that as when the body is moved 
the motion of the shadow doth follow it ; so, in like man- 
ner, having God favourable to us, who is over all, it fol- 
loweth that we shall have all his friends, angels, and saints 
favourable to us ; so that we may boldly say, that when 
men, who with a resolution propose to themselves the best 
things, do pray unto God, many thousands of the sacred 
powers pray together with them, uncalled for." 

Passing by the arguments, which Dr. Milner might pos- 
sibly not have thought on, but, with all these authorities 
before him, which as a writer of research he must be sup- 
posed aware of, how was it, in the first place, that he could 
as an honest man think of upholding so entirely absurd and 
wicked a doctrine as is invocation ? And, 2d, When his 
solemn oath was. Nee Scripturam imquam nisi juxta 
imanimem consensum patrum accipiam et inferpretaboi', 
" Never to receive or interpret the Scripture but according 
to the unanimous consent of the fathers," seeing his expo- 
sitions of Scripture are in flat opposition to the fathers, 
how doth this consist with his oath ? 

I must now disclose another matter that probably will 
startle many: it is this, that unless the particular saints in- 
vocated have not been duly canonized by the pope, &c., 
and proposed as real saints to be worshipped, the wor- 
shippers may be worshipping the damned ! Hear Bellar- 



LYING WONDERS AND MIRACLES. 343 

mine: "Unless certain saints judged such by the church be 
set forth to be worshipped, it might readily happen that the 
people may often so far err, as to worship the damned in- 
stead of saints."* This is something of moment. Here 
is another grade of papal power. But how are the people 
to know if the pope had power to canonize any as saints, 
or if he did so truly ? So, then, the people may be wor- 
shipping the damned — the devils ! But it has been proved 
all such invocation is an abomination to all heaven! 

With regard to prayers offered up to saints, angels, the 
blessed virgin, and even to inanimate things, such as the 
cross, &c., with rosaries and all the like, which I have 
proved to be an abomination to all the saints of God, I shall 
not spend my time reciting them here ; they are found in 
all their books. I shall now close with just observing, 
that as the papal world is filled with this doctrine, so have 
I been the more particular in developing it. And I trust it 
is now proved that the prominent character of idolatry, and 
that consisting of various sorts, doth pre-eminently belong 
to the pontiff of the seven hills. 

12. False Miracles — Lying Wonders. ^'■Then shall 
that wicked one be revealed, whose coming is according to 
the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and 
lying ivonders.''^i ^^And he doth great wonders, and de- 
ceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by means of those 
miracles which he had power to do.'''' Rev. xii. 14. 

* Nisi judicio ecclesise certe sancti proponerentur colendi, facile pos- 
set, ut populus ssepe erraret, et damnandos pro beatos coleret. Bellarm. 
de Sanct. Beat. cap. 7, § Sed. 

■\ "There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show 
great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the 
elect." Matt, xxiv, 24. "And then shall that wicked one be re- 
vealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall kill by the spirit of his mouth, and 
destroy with the brightness of his coming." 2 Thes. ii. 8, 9. "And I 
saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, 
and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, 
for they are the spirits of devils working signs, (miracles,) and they 
go forth," &c. Apocalypse xvi. 13, 14. "And I saw another beast 
come up out of the earth, having two horns as a lamb — and he seduced 
them that dwell on the earth, for the signs which were given him to 
do." Apoc. xiii. 11 — 14. "And the beast was taken, and with him the 
false prophet who wrought signs before him, — these two were cast 
alive into the pool of fire burning with brimstone." Apoc. xix. 20. 
Rhemish. 



S44 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

A DEMONSTRATION THAT NO TRUE MIRACLE HAS BEEN 
WROUGHT IN THE CHURCH OF RoME, IN ANY PART OF THE 
WORLD, FOR MANY AGES PAST ! ! ! 

1. Every pope and priest is sworn, " That the gospel is 
divine truth, and that all doctrines opposed to it are ac- 
cursed — are lies, and that God cannot lie, nor uphold a lie, 
but shall cast all liars into the lake of fire." But the pope's 
mission, dogmas, and church, having been for many ages 
past, and still being opposed to the gospel, are necessarily 
false ; and every pope and priest being bound to believe, 
that God could not work a miracle to uphold falsehood, 
and overthrow his own truth ; therefore every pope, pre- 
late, and priest is conclusively sworn, that in the church of 
Rome has no divine miracle been wrought for many ages 
past, in any part of the world ! ! ! 

2. And it is also conclusive, that as they are sworn. That 
(as every miracle not divine is false) all the miracles claimed 
to have been wrought in their church these many ages past, 
were either lying wonders and frauds on mankmd, or were 
of Satanic agency. I maintain it that their oath incontes- 
tably binds them to all this ; and, consequently, that no man 
not an idiot — no informed pope, prelate, or priest — has be- 
lieved, or can believe, that any true miracle has been 
wrought in the church of Rome for many ages past, in this 
or in any part of the world ; and, hence, all such advocates 
of miracles in their church were conclusively and necessa- 
rily guilty of wilful deception. 

The pope's claim to supremacy, or being head of all 
Christian churches, being flatly opposed to Christ, who 
forbade any such supremacy or headship among his apos- 
tles, or in his church, therefore, on pain of exclusion from 
the kingdom of God, (Matt, xviii. I — 3,) his mission and 
that of his clergy must, of course, be necessarily opposed to 
Christ, and consequently be antichristian ; and, added* to 
this, having inconlestably proved a heap of false doctrines 
and idolatries against the pope and his clergy, which, age 
after age, they were bound by oath to maintain to their 
latest breath, the minor is proved. Hence our conclusiou 
is firm, that God never granted any miracle to make those 
falsehoods pass for divine truths. 

Now, as divine miracles attested the sacred religion of 
God, taught by Moses and Jesus Christ, and the divinity 



LYING WONDERS AND MIRACLES. 345 

of their mission to establish it : so did this man of sin resort 
to the expedient oi miracles and lying wonders, as did the 
Egyptian magicians, (Exod. vii. viii.,) to attest the divinity 
of ins dogmas, and his authority, to the unthinking multi- 
tudes, exactly as the divine predictions, below written, had 
testified he would do. The question now is. Can any 
church be found at this day that hath a supreme head, false 
dogmas, and idolatiies ^ and that lays exclusive claim to 
miracles, age after age, for attestation of her exclusive divi- 
nity ? In reference to the former, that the church of Rome 
hath them, is proved unquestionably ; and with regard to the 
latter, that she claims miracles exclusively, is too notorious 
to be denied : instance her " golden legends," " Lives of 
Saints," "Breviary," "Scapular," "Books of Contro- 
versy," &c., &c. The cases of such miracles, in constant 
succession, and which would be sufficient to fill volumes, I 
shall pass over, selecting just a few by way of specimen ! ! ! 
In the "Breviary," which every priest must in his office 
(to make him familiar with such matters, of course) daily 
read for nearly two hours, are many miracles recorded as 
done by the saints. Of which one, on May 2d, is, " That 
a very beautiful horse being lent by a certain noble lady to the 
pope to ride on, the animal, as if conscious of the honour 
of having carried the Vicar of Christ, would never suffer her 
to ride him after. So that she had to return him to the pope." 
Another miracle is, "That of a saint, whose head being nearly 
cut off by some Avicked persons, he lived two days, and car- 
ried it in his hands two miles across the country, and laid it 
down where a church was afterwards erected." Another is 
that of " a monk, St. Francis de Paula, who on his cloak, with 
several monks thereon, at night crossed the strait of Sicily, 
as on shipboard." I shall take but one more from the Bre- 
viary. " Angels carried the house in which the blessed Vir- 
gin lived, from Jerusalem, through the air, to the coast of 
Dalmatia, and thence to Loretto, in the pope's dominions, 
where they laid it down. The Rev. Blanco White has this 
in his book. The Scapular tells: " At the battle of Teffin 
a cannon-ball shot off the side of the belly of an officer who 
wore the scapular ; but that being in mortal sin, and wearing 
the scapular, he could not die in that state, but lived four 
hours, until he wrote his will, made his confession, and 
received absolution ! That when the surgeon came after 



346 THE LATTER'DAY APOSTASY. 

wards to examine him, he found, to his utter astonishment, 
the scapular he had worn lodged in his heart, having been 
driven into it by the cannon-ball." Mr. Thayer tells us, 
" That his conversion was greatly expedited and confirmed 
by the many miracles wrought by the relics of the late 
venerable Lahre, the noise of which had filled all Rome !" 
But the next pope, it appears, with the court of Rome, dis- 
covered that all these miracles were mere impostures, and 
ordered the word venerable to be effaced from his tomb- 
stone. So, then, Mr. Thayer was converted by imposture ! 
Dr. MiLNER shall be our last to trouble our readers with. 
This famed controvertist has two long letters (23d, 24th) 
vindicating his church's miracles. But we shall take the 
liberty of demolishing them, and all that went before for 
ages, as in a trice. For, can miracles that support any doc- 
trines opposed to Christ's doctrine be of God? Would 
God overthrow himself? If not, all such miracles were 
either Satanic or lying wonders. This touches the point at 
once. With regard to what the doctor says of the miracles 
of Moses and Christ, and of the defence of them by the 
ancient fathers, all this no true Christian denies. But his 
object was to set those of his church on the same basis ; or, 
in other words, to make east and west one and the same! 
He states many miracles by his saints, not one of which, it 
shall presently appear, he by any means believed ! He 
tells us, " That Michael Pelliser, at Saragossa, having had, 
in 1610, his leg amputated, obtained by his prayers the stu- 
pendous miracle of a new natural leg in its place !" If this 
does not out-Herod Herod, let all men judge. "St. Ber- 
nard, it was notorious, cured instantaneously the lame, the 
blind, the paralytic, of whom some were persons of consi- 
derable rank." " St. Xaverius foretold future events, spoke 
unknown languages, calmed tempests at sea, raised the 
dead. He, to convince some careless, obstinate people, bid 
them open the grave of a corpse buried the day before, and 
that he would show them what he could do : they did so. 
When, falling upon his knees, and praying to God to 
restore it to life, the dead man was instantly restored to life 
and perfect health, which caused all the country round to 
receive the faith ! !" St. Dominick, to prove the truth of 
the Catholic religion, cast a book containing it into the 
flames, where it remained unconsumed in the presence of 



LYING WONDERS AND MIRACLES. 347 

the heretics." Here are bouncers with a witness, enough 
I'or the whole world ! But he proceeds : " The following 
century was illustrated by the attested miracles of St. 
Francis of Sales, even to the resurrection of the dead : as it 
was also by those of St. John Francis Regis, concerning 
which twenty-two bishops of Languedoc wrote thus to 
Pope Clement XL: 'We are witnesses that, before the tomb 
of S. J. F. Regis, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf 
hear, the dumb speak ;' and ' that the very dust of his tomb 
is carried into all the provinces of the kingdom, as an uni- 
versal remedy for all disorders,' " adds Whitak. Com. 
Apocal. p. 240. " Himself was well acquainted with four 
or five persons miraculously cured, and well attested. 
.Toseph Lamb, of Eccles near Manchester, was, on October 
2d, 1814, healed in an instant of a broken spine he had got 
by a fall, and made him a cripple, by signing the sign of the 
cross on his back by a hand, preserved at Garswood near 
Wigan, belonging to F. Arrowsmith, a Catholic priest exe- 
cuted for the exercise of his religion at Lancaster, in the 
reign of Charles L" "Mary Wood was instantly healed 
of an incurable contraction in her arm, occasioned by a 
dreadful laceration, by the intercession of St. Winifred and 
a piece of moss from the saint's well applied to it." 
Winifred of Wolverhampton was miraculously cured at 
Holywell, on June 28, 1805, of a curvature in the spine, 
of three years' standing, by her devotions on the occasion, 
and bathing in the fountain, so that in an instant she was so 
perfectly freed from all her pains and disabilities, as to be 
able to walk, run, and jump like any other young person. 
Of this, soon after it happened, I published a detailed ac- 
count, which was republished in England and Ireland, by 
Keating and Brown, London, and Coyne, Dublin. 

" Such are the miracles which frequently took place in 
the Catholic church, in attestation of her being divinely ap- 
pointed, but never among the heretics ! !" 

Here I close, with the doctor's miracles, for the present: 
and before I bring my proofs that no informed man ever 
believed a sentence of them, and of course, neither did he, 
I leave it to the candour of every reader, if they do net, on 
the face of them, carry their own condemnation, as mere 
frauds on ignorance ? 

But could stories of this description, and with great devo 



348 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

tion, too, and ability blazoned forth, as indubitably attested, 
in public pastorals throughout this kingdom, by Doctors 
Doyle and Murray, so lately as three years ago, in reference 
to the miraculous cures of Miss Maria Lalor, of Ros'kelton, 
near Maryborough ; and Mrs. Stewart, of Ranelagh con- 
vent, near Dublin ; I say, could stories of this sort have 
convinced us of the pre-eminency of the claims of the church 
of Rome, we need not have gone farther ! Dr. Doyle told 
us, in his pious Pastoral, that he knew the case of Mary 
Lalor's lamentable dumbness ; that Dr. Smith, of Montrath, 
having lost hope of her himself, went to Dublin, and had a 
consultation with eight physicians on her case, who all pro- 
nounced her incurable. That then he, in pity to, and at the 
request of her distressed father, Mr. Lalor, wrote to the 
very Rev. Prince Hohenlohe, of Bamberg, to implore his 
aid and prayers on behalf of this amiable and afflicted lady. 
That he received a gracious answer. That attending to cer- 
tain 'prescribed devotions she might, through God's infinite 
mercy and goodness, expect assuredly to be healed on 
such a day and hour, while the adorable sacrifice of the 
mass was celebrated. That on that very day and hour, she 
was instantly and miraculously healed, and could speak 
plainly, breaking forth in loud praises to God ; and that he 
himself saw her afterwards, and conversed with her freely, 
and had the whole narrative from her own mouth. 

Such another was the incurable state of Mrs. Stewart, in 
reference to wasting ulcers, who had been attended by the 
most eminent physicians, Dr. Cheyne, and others, but to 
no purpose J that the most Rev. Dr. Murray, of Dublin, in 
the last extremity, made similar application to his highness 
of Bamberg, and succeeded similarly, so that in one mo- 
ment, while the venerable sacrifice was celebrated, she was 
restored to perfect soundness, and all her ulcers were dried 
up. And all this rang through the nation, in a luminous 
pastoral from this prelate, as a fresh attestation of the divine 
favour to his suflering church, and as an encouragement 
from heaven to Catholics to be in nothing dismayed. Added 
to these we were noticed to expect similar miracles at the 
beginning of every subsequent month. 

But, lo! and behold, the whole was proved most notori- 
ous, arrant frauds. For Dr. Smith, surprised at the use 
so audaciously made of his name, madepw6/ic oath, that he 



R. C. BISHOPS ON MIRACLES CONFUTED. 349 

never in his life saw this girl, Mary Lalor, but once ; nor 
ever consulted any doctor in Dublin, or elsewhere, about 
her. Dr. Murray's case met with such another expose, for 
Dr. Cheyne and the others who attended Mrs. Stewart 
visited her after the miraculous cure was announced ; and 
made their affidavits openly, " That in four days after her 
alleged miraculous cure, they had visited her, found some 
of her ulcers or issues freely discharging, her pulse as high 
as one hundred and twenty, and her so entirely weak, as to 
be unable to walk into the garden." What miracles ! what 
lying wonders I How bishops, men of respectability in 
society, could lend themselves to such gross impostures, 
and, being thus detected, yet lift up their heads and look any 
man in the face, is passing strange. But it is in character 
with the rest. And where priests are to stop, when their 
bishops thus show the way, who can tell ? Thus were 
these miracles, by closely watching them, silenced at once. 
The arch-juggler also, " Prince Hohenlohe, was visited but 
lately by the lightning of Almighty God, which burned his 
palace to the ground !" So was it announced in the public 
prints. These men appear to expect their people must be- 
lieve the sun is darkness, if they tell them so. I am weary 
of reciting such abominations : yet in vindication of the Di- 
vine predictions, which have so faithfully warned us of such 
stratagems, to delude us, and for the public good, I feel 
obliged to bring them to the light. 

First. We are taught by the sacred Scripture, to the 
divinity of which this clergy are sworn, "That the pagan 
magicians resisted Moses, his miracles, and divine mission, 
and by their sorceries and enchantments wrought miracles, 
turning their rods into serpents, the waters into blood, and 
bringing up frogs on the land, like as did Moses." — Exod. 
vii. viii. God also warns us. That the man of sin — the 
false prophet, and his false prophets, would, by the aid of 
devils, work such miracles and lying wonders to subvert 
the gospel religion, as would deceive multitudes, even the 
elect, (the best Christians,) if possible. Matt. xxiv. 24; 
Rev. xvi. 13. See Acts viii. 9, 10; xiii. 6 — 10. 

2d. We also find in the first ages of Christianity the hea- 
then claiming miracles, as wrought by the agency of their 
daimonia, or inferior gods. " Those," saith St. Augustine 

30 



350 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

"which we call angels."* Saith Celsus, of his gods, 
" How many being troubled that they had no children, have 
by them enjoyed their wishes ? How many being maimed 
in body have been healed by them?^t Saith Cecilius, 

* Hos si Platonic! malunt Deos quam daemones dicere, eisque annu- 
merare quos asummo Deo conditos Deos scribit eorum auctor et magister 
Plato : dicant quod volunt, non enim cum eis de verborum controversia 
laborandum est — quamvis nominis controversia videatur, hoc ipsum 
dicunt quod dicimus. August, de Civ. Dei, 1. 9, c. 23. " If the Plato- 
nists prefer calling those intercessors gods, rather than demons, and to 
number them with those whom their head and master, Plato, writes to 
have been made gods by the supreme God, let them call them what they 
please, for we must not contend with them about words : although there 
seems to be a dispute about the name, they say the very same thing 
which we say." " They call them, virtutes et ministeria Dei raagni, 
ayyixci, &c. * The powers, ministers, messengers of the great God, ad- 
vocates, intercessors, pararii, obtainers of our suits. They bring the 
prayers of men unto God, and (q use pos cunt impetrata) what they beg 
and obtain, they (illinc referunt impetrata) thence bring back to men.' " 
Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 9, c. 18. 

That the heathen distinguished their intercessors into two classes, 
namely, demons or gods, and good men, is clear from the old Roman 
law, as stated by Cicero. D'lvos, et eos qui ccelestes semper habiti 
colunto ,' et illos quos in caelum merita vocaverunt. "Let them wor- 
ship the gods, even those always in heaven, and also those whose merits 
exalted them to heaven." Cicer. de Legib. 1. 2. St. Paul, taking the 
words of Aratus, the heathen poet, " We are his offspring," (i. e. Jupi- 
ter's,) saith to the heathens, " This God whom you ignorantly worship 
declare we unto you, God who made the world and all things therein." 
Hence he looked on their Jupiter as the true and living God. 

Pliny writes, Quisquis est Deus, totus est sensus, iotus visits, totus 
auditus, totus animse, totus animi, totus sui, &c. " Whoever God is, he 
is all sense, all sight, all hearing, all soul, all mind, all of Himself, or all 
independent." Hippocrates, and many other heathens have written the 
same ; yet, though they thus believed of the true God, angels, and saints, 
in common with Christians, but under other names, Jupiter, gods, de- 
mons, &c., the inspired apostle pronounces " their sacrifices, and sup- 
plications, and worship to their gods, (presented, as they thought, to 
the one true God, and from whom they conceived they had obtained 
many benefits and miracles,) as sacrifices offered to devils, and not to 
God." And why he thus pronounced, was clearly this: because, as 
neither God, nor his Son, Christ, ever taught such devotions towards 
angels or departed saints, so are they human inventions, taught by 
Satan's temptations, and therefore were most properly called " sacrifices 
to devils," with which Christians should have nothing to do. 1 G >r 
X. 20. How alarming ! if this will not cure men, what can ? 

ix^»7c/.y, &c. Apud Orig. \. 8, 407. 



R. C. BISHOPS ON MIRACLES CONFUTED. 361 

'*They (the demons) give us caution in dangers, medicine 
in diseases, hope to the afflicted, help to the miserable, com- 
fort in calamities, ease from labours."* "In vain do you 
arrogate so much to Christ, (say they,) for we have often 
known that other gods have given medicine to, and healed 
the injirmities of' many. "t All which benefits they con- 
ceived they had obtained through the prayers they had 
offered them. Saith Celsus, Ttpossvx'tsov cva ivfiEvn^ coav. 
*' We ought to pray to them to be propitious to us." — Apud 
Orig. 1. 8, p. 394. Saith Plato, fista §f tovtovs xai, v7to tovroi^ 
et/ji Aat^oi^oj, &c. 1. " They, the (demons) gods ought to be 
honoured with our prayers, by reason of their laudable pro- 
vince, i. e. to be our intercessors to God : 2, To carry up the 
sacrifices and prayers of men to God, and bring back the 
commands and answers of God to them." Epinom. p. 1010. 

Apuleius writes, "All things are done by the will, ma- 
jesty, and authority of the heavenly beings, but by the mi- 
nistry, work, and obsequiousness of the demons. "J Is not 
this paganism, exact popery ? 

That the heretics also believed they obtained many mira- 
culous gifts from God, through their saints, is testified by 
the fathers. Saith St. Augustine, writing against Petilianus, 
a Donatist heretic, " Let him not say, that therefore they 
were in the right, because that Fortius, or Donatus, or any 
other did such and such miracles, or because men praying 
at the memorials of our martyrs are heard, and because such 
and such things do happen there," &;c. 

" For, either the things are not true which are spoken, 
or if some false miracles be wrought by heretics, we ought 
to be more carefid, because our Lord Christ having said, 
that there should come deceivers who should work such 
miracles as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect ; 
he adds, by way of vehement warning, this, ' Behold I have 
foretold you.' Whence the apostle also admonishing us, 
saith, ' Now the Spirit expressly teacheth, that in the latter 

* Dant cautelam periculis, morbis medelam, spem afHictis, opem 
miseris, solatium calamitatibus, laboribus levamentum, &c. Minut. Fel 
p. 7. 

f Frustra tantum arrogas Christo, cum saepe alios sciamus Deos, el 
laborantibus plurimis dedisse medicinas, et multorum hominum morbog 
valetudinesque curasse. Arnob. 1. 1, p, 28. 

i: Cuncta coelestium voluntate, numine, et auctoritate fiunt, sed de- 
monum obsequio, opere, et ministerio. Apul. de DsEmon. Socrat. p. 45. 



352 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 



times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seduc- 
ing spirits and doctrines of devils."* 

Again, "AVhatever signs of this nature are done in the 
Catholic church, are they therefore to be approved because 
done there? The church is not for this proved Catholic 
because these miracles are done in her. They may not 
demonstrate that they hold the Catholic church, otherwise 
than, divinarum Scripturarum canonicis libris, by the 
canonical Scriptures."! Again, De visis autem fallacibus 
legant quse scripta sunt, et quia ipse Satanas se transjigu- 
rat tanquam angelum lucis, ^-c. "In regard to false vi- 
sions, let them read what things are written ; and because 
Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light and 
deceived many, let them also hear what the pagans tell of 
the wonders done by their gods, and at their temples." 
Contr. Petil. Donat. 

Again, " Let them, if they can, demonstrate their church, 
not by the talk and rumours of xifricans, not by the councils 
of their bishops, not by the books of their disputers, not by 
deceitful miracles, against which we are cautioned by the 
word of God, but in the prescript of the law, in the predic- 
tions of the prophets, in the verses of the Psalms, in the 
voices of the Shepherd himself, in the preaching and works 
of the evangelists — that is, in all the canonical authorities 
of the sacred Scriptures." De unitat. Eccles. c. 16. 

Tertullian writes, Quibusdam signis et miracuUs et ora- 

* Non dicat verum est quia hoc ego dico, aut quia hoc dixit ille col- 
lega meus, aut ille episcopi aut clerici vel laici nostri; aut ideo verum 
est quia ilia et ilia mirahilia fecit Donatus, vel Fortius, vel quilibet alius. 
Aut quia homines ad memorias mortuorum nostrorum orant et exaudi- 
untur, aut quia ilia et ilia ibi contingunt, aut quia ille frater noster aut 
ilia soror tale visum vigilans vidit; removeantur ista vel figmenta men- 
dacium hominum, vel portent a fallacium spiritura : aut enim non sunt 
vera qujE dicuntur, aut si hsereticorum aliqua mira sunt facta, magis 
Cavere debemus quod cum dixisset Dominus, quosdam futures esse fal- 
laces, qui nonnulla signa faciendo etiam electos si fieri posset fallerent, 
adjecit vehementer commendans et ait, Ecce prfsdixi vobis ; unde et 
apostolus admonens, Spiritus manifeste docet quia in novissimis tem- 
poribus recedentquidam a fide intendentes spiritibus seductoribus etdoc- 
trinis daemoniorum, &c. Lib. de unitat. Eccles. cont. Petil. Donat. 

t Quaecunque talia in Catholica fiunt, ideo sunt approbanda quia in 
Cathohca fiunt ? Non ideo manifestatur Catholica quia hsec in ea fiunt ; 
ntrum ipsi ecclesiam teneant, non nisi divinarum Scripturam canonicis 
libris ostendant. Ibid. p. 117. 



R. C. BISHOPS ON MIRACLES CONFUTED. 353 

culis Jidem divinifatis operatur. "By certain signs, and 
miracles, and oracles, did they obtain to be reputed divine, 
i. e. to be gods." Apol. c. 21. 

St. Chrysostom, speaking of deceivers, saith : Kat yap 

&c. " They often by their skill have cured diseases, and 
restored to health those that were sick : What, should we 
for this partake with them in their iniquity?" fivi yivoito. 
" It must not be— God forbid."* 

Eusebius saith : Taj 4'i^;t<*? ^^'^ '^^i sv^sov^ xav asco/xatov^ 
Svvafiiv^ bi ^av'koi Sat^ovsj xa^VTis xpivovto 6c.a TtoVkriq 'O]^ 

tspatoTtoLEia^, &c. " The wicked demons counterfeited, in 
marking many miracles, the souls of them who were de- 
ceased, and thence they were thought worthy to be cele- 
brated with greater veneration." Frx. Far. 1. 5, c. 2. 

" Of Philostrogius," saith Whitby, (on Romish Idolatry, 
p. 203,) " What can be more glorious than what he records 
of Agapetus, his fellow-heretic. That he wrought many 
miracles, raised the dead, and healed many that were sick, 
and converted many to the Christian faith. "t "And of 
Theophilus, another brother Arian, That his wonders were 
so great, and were such convincing demonstrations, Toj> 
xpi'dtoi' TiitSTiiv afiaxov sTttSEi^afiivoi, (fec, of the Christian faith, 
as to constrain the obstinacy of the Jews, and put to silence 
all their contradictions.":}; 

Here is something for Doctors Milner, Murray, Doyle, 
and their fraternity to contemplate ! I wonder could they 
outstrip those pagans, and those heretics, in their exploits ? 
Need we go farther than the incontestable evidence thus 
before us, not only from pagans and heretics, but from God 
himself by his unerring word, and from the ancient fathers, 
too, that miracles have thus been wrought by deceivers of 
various descriptions? And we are warned that the same, 
even great miracles, and lying wonders, would, through 
the aid of devils, be practised by the false prophets of the 
man of sin, (Rev. xvi. 13. Matt. xxiv. 24,) in order to oppose 

* Chrysost. torn. vi. lib. 20, p. 375. 

j" n?^; Ay-jLTTiircu too cruvM^iTianotJ — vnc^ov; ^cv ciwrcv ctv'xo-nia-at Kryii mi 

TTcKKOiV AKKCeV JTxS-ai' ipuyUiJiUTilV yiVKJ'^dU X.XI S\*T»g2t, OU/U.MV CLAXtt KAl Trag-J.- 

S'j^cev ctXKMV i^yaw Jn/uiou^yov km ttoXXou; t^ iWma'V ac tov ^^((rrtctVKTjUiv 
/uiTctr:t^x<r^iU TT^-xtrKOixirxi, &c. Philost. Hist. Eccl. 1. 2, § 8, p. 14. 
+ Idem. 1. 3, § 4, p. 27. 

30* 



354 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

the gospel of Christ, and, if possible, subvert those, who 
faithfully follow it, and turn them to diabolical idolatries jmd 
superstitions. 

We now take leave to ask the papal clergy, how may 
false miracles be with certainty distinguished from those 
that are divine ? Whether are miracles to give character to, 
or receive it from doctrines ? This touches the point at once. 
If miracles always stamp divinity on the mission and reli- 
gion they come to support, then were heathen magicians 
and their idolatries divinely accredited, as were these here- 
tics, and the man of sin : for all these resorted to, and, it 
was predicted, would resort to miracles. But, if to affirm 
that those miracles were divine attestations, would be blas- 
phemy; then miracles must ever receive their character 
from the doctrine they uphold, and not the doctrine from 
them. Hence, if the doctrine be pure, the miracles attest- 
ing it must be divine, as were those of Moses, and of Christ 
and his apostles. But if the doctrine be impure, if it be 
opposed to the gospel, its miracles must ever be of the devil, 
lying wonders. This,point is now settled foreyer, Jinitum 
est. 2. As Christ declares, "That a corrupt tree cannot 
bring forth good fruit," and as every drunkard, every im- 
moral pastor, and every teacher of doctrines opposed to 
Christ and his gospel, are confessedly false and corrupt, 
where any of this description are found professed workers 
of miracles, of wonderful cures, we again ask, must it not 
necessarily follow, that all their wonders are by the agency 
of the devil, or frauds on credulity ? Irishmen ! think on 
this, if ye would escape Satan. 

3. When professed pastors of the church of Christ are 
teachers of doctrines opposed to the gospel, and are ob- 
served resorting to miracles to attest their mission as divine, 
are not such miracles, we once more inquire, the very pre- 
dicted signs and lying wonders of the man of sin and of his 
church, whose coming is according to the working of Satan, 
and with all seduction of iniquity ? But the pope and his 
church are found teaching many doctrines opposed to the 
gospel, as has been just proved, and also most exultingly 
boast of multitudes of miracles, exclusively, as bright attes- 
tations of divine favour; therefore, the conclusion is una- 
voidable, that these very miracles and wonders, the pope 
and his church claim, exclusively, as their peculiar glory. 



NO TRUE MIRACLE IN THE R. C. CHURCH. 355 

are^he very predicted signs and lying wonders of the man 
of sin, pointed out as by the finger of God himself: so " that 
he that runs may read." 

In sum : We now entreat this clergy to speak out and tell 
us, in the presence of God, Do they indeed believe that the 
miracles of the magicians, or other heathens, or of heretics, 
or of the predicted man of sin and false prophet, or, in fine, 
of any found opposing the gospel, were divine ? or were 
other than of the devil, or lying wonders ? Now, if they 
must believe they were such ; and that our Lord did for- 
bid supremacy among his apostles, and of course in his 
church, on pain, of perdition,* and has anathematized all 
doctrines opposed to the gospel ;t they must then necessa- 
rily believe that God has never granted any true miracle to 
attest his approbation of such supremacy or dogmas. But 
the pope's supremacy began in the year 606, and has been 
held with all possible assiduity to this day, that is, during 
twelve hundred and twenty-one years past, and it is proved 
tliat he and his church teach many doctrines and idolatries 
in direct opposition to the gospel. Since then no pope or 
priest durst say, that God ever granted a miracle to uphold 
false dogmas, and idolatries, or contradict his own truth, it 
must follow, therefore, that my former conclusion is im- 
movable, namely: "That no informed pope, prelate, 
OR priest ever can, or did believe, that, during these 

TWELVE hundred AND TWENTY-ONE YEARS PAST, ANY DI- 
VINE miracle has BEEN WROUGHT IN THE CHURCH OF RoME, 
IN THIS, OR IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD ; AND THAT 
ALL THE MIRACLES SAID TO HAVE BEEN WROUGHT IN HER, IN 
ALL THOSE AGES, WERE OF SaTAn's IMMEDIATE WORKING, OR 
WERE LYING WONDERS AND IMPOSTURES OF WICKED MEN," 

resorted to, to deceive mankind, and seduce them to cease 
from the gospel, and therefore to forsake Christ, beciome 
followers of the man of sin, and promote his doctrine and 
kingdom on earth, as was so accurately predicted. If, after 
this exposure of these false dogmas and miracles, men will 
abide in such a church, and suffer themselves to be deceived, 
and will refuse the warning voice of God, saying, " Go out 
of her, my people, that ye receive not of her plagues, for her 
sins have reached to heaven, and God also hath remembered 

* Matt, xviii. 1, 3; xxiii. 8 — 10. Luke xxii. 24 — 26. 
fGal. i. 8. Rev. xxii. 



356 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

her iniquities." Apoc. xviii. I say, if they take not t^iis 
warning, are they not desperately resolved to partake of her 
plagues, and of the wrath of God forever ? 

The excellent Dr. Stillingfleet shall close this article, say- 
ing: "After the true doctrine is confirmed by divine mira- 
cles, God may give the devil power to work, if not real 
miracles, yet such as men cannot judge by the things them- 
selves whether they be so or not ; and this for trial, whether 
we will forsake the true doctrine confirmed by greater mi- 
racles, for the sake of such doctrines as are contrary thereto, 
and are supported by false prophets, by signs and lying 
wonders. Now, in this case, our rule of trial must not so 
much be the miracles considered in themselves, whether real 
or not: as the comparing them with the miracles wrought 
in behalf of that doctrine which is contrary to that which is 
divine. 

" Therefore God's people, under the law, were to examine 
the drift and scope of the miracles: and if they were in- 
tended to bring them away from the doctrine of heaven, to 
idolatry, they were forbidden to hearken to them, whatever 
they were. Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3. So now under the gospel, 
the worship of the true God, through Jesus Christ, and by 
the doctrine revealed by Him, is the standard whereby we 
ought to judge of all pretenders to miracles: so that let the 
miracles be what they will, if they contradict that doctri)ie 
which Christ revealed to the world, we are to look upon 
them only as trials of our faith in Christ, to see whether we 
love him with our whole heart or not." Orig. Sacrae, lib. 2, 
c. 10. And accordingly we look upon such miracles as 
trials,* whether we will forsake Christ, and give his wor- 
ship to a creature. Turn to p. 111. 

* A document, the decrees of a synod held in Tuam, (Co. Galway.) 
hy my countryman, Dr. Oliver Kelly, A. Bishop, in May, 1817, and ap- 
proved in Rome, by the Propaganda College, on May 30, 1825, signed 
hy Petrus Caprano, secretary, now lies before me. The eighth decree 
is: "Omnis sacerdos she tegularis sive secularis qui fatso morborum 
curationes sihi ascribit, et evangelia super populum irreverenter vet iri- 
honesfe legit publlce vet privatim" &c. "That any priest, or monk, 
falsely becoming a worker of miraculous cures, and that publicly or pri- 
vately, irreverently, or deceitfully, reads gospel over the people, or any 
other rites or prayers, to obtain money or other matters, must hold him- 
self, ipso facto, suspended, and, by tliese presents, is declared such." In, 
super ut fiiec cleri opprubria e medio prorsus tollantur, &c. " More- 



NO TRUE MIRACLE IX THE R. C. CHURCH. 3 57 

13th mark. Believing a Lie.* — As it appears plain, tliat 
all 'these epithets: "Beast, lamb with two horns, false 
prophet, man of sin sitting in God's temple, son of psrdi- 
tion, antichrist," must mean the same person, with his coa- 
lition, in his several characters ; 1st. In his regal, or that of 
beast, or king, that he is the chief of all tyrants. 2d. In 
his spiritual, of lamb, false prophet, antichrist, &c., that 
he is, of all the wicked and false apostles that ever lived, the 
most consummate hypocrite, the greatest propagator of false 
doctrines, the most corrupt of all sinners. And as Judas, 
who retained his apostleship, and called Christ master, and 
even kissed him while yet he was betraying him, and was 
therefore the son of perdition ; so, he retaining his episco- 
pal dignity, and claiming to be successor of the ^^prince of 
apostles,^' pretending to the highest sanctity, ^''inost holy^^ 
and highest veneration for Christ, even to be his ^^ sole vicar 
on earth,'''' all the time he was abrogating or corrupting his 
doctrines, and slaughtering his servants who stood in their 
defence, and thus emphatically betraying him and his cause; 
I say, so is he also called by the Holy Ghost, the son of 
perdition. And as this man was eminently the wicked one. 

over, that these scandals of the clergy may be entirely removed, we 
earnestly counsel all parish priests, and such as have the charge of souls, 
diligently to guard their people against (tales abusus) such frauds." 

This proves that the principal clergy are getting ashamed of this 
miracle trade, which even open drunkards are found dabbling at. Yet 
it goes on, and dupes are not wanting to crowd to these, thus acknow- 
ledged, impostures. Yet they serve the work of the apostasy in some 
sense. For whenever they find any foolish Protestant come to be cured 
by a miracle, the first thing is, to promise "he will go to ohurch no 
more ;" that is, " he will attend no more where God's book is read." 
For to object to one edifice more than another, would be unmeaning, 
unless on this ground. But to promise not to go to hear God's book 
read, and to go to mass, where it is not read, is to promise to refuse to 
hear Christ, and to forsake him, and to become a false worshipper and 
idolater ! Therefore the profane priest, by his lying wonders, deceives, 
and fulfils the prediction. 

* "Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be 
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion tj 
believe a lie, {lying,- Rheraish,) that they all might be damned wh) 
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thess. 
ii. 10 — 12. That is, God gave the gospel of truth to save men; but, 
neglecting this, and taking pleasure in the false doctrines and false mira- 
cles, or lyins:, of the man of sin, and cleaving to them, they incur thu 
wrath of God, and bring on themselves damnation ! 



358 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

SO must that predicted LIE be, of all lies that ever appeared, 
the greatest and most pernicious. But how shall that greatest 
LIE be known? Answer: Should a man be found declaring 
upon oath, that he has power from God to do what Christ 
himself could not do, — should prevail upon great numbers 
of learned doctors to join him in the same oath, binding till 
death on each of them, and to be perpetuated from age to 
age on their successors forever, and finally, seducing whole 
nations, and many, too, to believe the same and submit to it, 
would not this be the greatest and most ruinous lie that ever 
appeared ? and therefore that predicted lie ? 

In a word, as every false doctrine is a lie, when all the 
dogmas combatted in these sheets are proved opposed to 
the gospel, and are notorious lies, of course, must not that 
creed that teaches them be therefore the greatest lie pos- 
sible? But of all the false dogmas of this creed, transub- 
stantiation is chiefest ; therefore, of all lies, it is the greatest ; 
hence it is that predicted lie ; and hence it required miracles 
unnumbered to colour it over, if possible. 

Now, let us ask, has any lie comparable to this, so per- 
nicious to Christianity, so prolific of such multitudes of 
other lies, as its natural off'spring, and so sanguinary, as 
having caused so many of the human race who resisted it 
to be murdered, and which daily involves its own ministers 
and people in so many absurdities, falsehoods, blasphemies, 
and idolatries, been ever known or heard of? If not, if the 
fellow to it never, before or after it, has appeared, this, 
then, is confessedly that very predicted LIE, which is so 
gross it could not have been believed, except by the influ- 
ence of " STRONG DELUSION," as the Holy Ghost doth most 
fitly express it. To the papacy, therefore — to the ''man 
of s^?^" alone, does this doctrine, this mark, most clearly 
belong. The very stating of the evils of this dogma is so 
shocking to my feelings, that nothing but a sense of duty to 
my God, whom it dishonours, and to my fellow-men, 
whose ruin it so evidendy threatens, could induce me to 
make it. 

But, again, when those dogmas and miracles are so very 
emphatically set forth by God himself, as of the working of 
Satan, assisting the wicked man in corrupting the world, 
and when it is pronounced. That all such as love not the 
truth of God, the gospel, but love such false miracles and 



THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 359 

lying wonders shall perish, and, in just judgment, be given 
up to strong delusion to believe lying, (as saith the Rhemish 
Testament,) that they all might be condemned, or damned, 
who receive not the love of the truth that they might be 
saved, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ; should not all 
whom it concerns, oi who have hitherto been seduced by 
these evils, be alarmed, and, according to the divine warn- 
ing, cast them off forever, that they perish not ? 

14th mark. Persecution of the saints by the beast 

AND DRUNKEN WOMAN, AND THE TEN HORNS. "And I SaW 

the woman drunken with the blood of the saints."* God 
himself most clearly forewarns us of a dreadful combina- 
tion by the beast, the murderous woman, and ten horns, to 
intoxicate mankind, by false dogmas, miracles performed 
by false prophets and devils ; by fables, and numberless 
artifices, that the nations drinking of this wine of delusion 
might be drunken and mad, even so mad as to look on the 
gospel — the way of truth, as dangerous and evil; and, dis- 
regarding its authority, and its Divine Author of course, 
might without scruple wonder after the beast and his harlot, 
i. e. the man of sin and his church. But the prediction 
says, " That the saints — those who keep the command- 
ments of God, and the testimony — the gospel of Jesus, 
would not yield to the beast ; and that when they could not, 
by all these frauds together, be seduced from Christ, they 
must be reduced by force to obedience, or this wicked 
woman be made drunken with their blood. To make war, 
then, with those faithful followers of the gospel, is evidently 

* "And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by the means of 
those miracles which he had power to do." "And the ten horns which 
thou sawest are ten kings — these have one mind, and shall give their 
power and strength unto the beast: these shall make war with the 
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them." "And I saw a woman sit 
upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven 
heads and ten horns. With her the kings of the earth committed for- 
nication — and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the 
wine of her fornications. And the woman was arrayed in purple and 
scarlet colour, and upon her forehead was a name written : Mystery, 
Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." 
Rev. xiii. to xvii. 

" There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in 
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them — And many 
stiall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth 
shall be evil spoken of" 2 Pet. ii. 



360 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

to make war with the Lamb. What woman and beast are 
they, we ask, which, from age to age, have been destroying 
and wearing out the saints of Christ, by wars, crusades, 
inquisitions, and by every other possible artifice, to our 
day? Who can be so ignorant of history as not to know, 
tliat the pope and his church are they ? What bloody 
records have we not, not only from Greek and Protestant 
writers, but also from Roman Catholics — Dupin, Thuanus, 
&c. &LC. ? How many millions of the Albigenses and Wal- 
denses, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, have been 
slain ? And, O ! horrible to tell, in England, Scotland, Ire- 
land, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, nay, and in all the 
Christian nations, what myriads of innocent Christians have 
been massacred, burned, tortured by inquisitions and other 
modes of torment, banished and destroyed altogether, be- 
cause they would not submit to the pope and his doctrines, 
but would cleave to those of Christ alone ! It makes one's 
heart ache to think on it ! What obligations and oaths have 
been laid on all the kings around, "?o extirpate these poor 
souls, these heretics,'''' as they artfully called them ; and 
also on all bishops to exterminate and persecute them ! 
Need we advert to documents ? Alas ! they are written in 
blood, in all the nations ! ! Mr. Mede, from indubitable 
authority, affirms that in about thirty years 150,000 were 
destroyed by the Inquisition, and by the Jesuits 30,000 ; 
and the Duke of Alva boasted that 36,000, in his territories, 
had been despatched by the common executioners! ! 

And when we consider, and our astonished eyes behold 
the creeds, canons, and oaths framed and rigorously 
enforced by the papacy, whose decrees, however cruel or 
sanguinary, must be looked upon as infallibly dictated by 
the Holy Ghost, [synodo in Spiritu Sancto legitime con- 
gregata,) what but such horrifying slaughter and butchery 
of the saints, whom the papal church designated heretics, 
could be expected in every nation under papal influence ? 
Take the following few terrible specimens of the decrees 
of papal councils : "All princes, magistrates, and civil 
authorities," saith the council of Lateran, "shall swear to 
extirpate faithfully, and with all their might, all their sub- 
jects pronounced heretics by the church, from every part 
of their territories ; which should they neglect to fulfil, their 



THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 361 

subjects are absolved from their obedience."* This dread- 
ful decree was confirmed by the council of Constance, sess. 
45 ; and by the bull of Martin V. De Error. Wickliff. 

Say the Toledo fathers, "We promulgate this decree, 
that whosoever shall hereafter succeed to the kingdom, 
shall not ascend the throne, till he has sworn, among other 
oaths, to permit no man to live in his kingdom who is not 
a Catholic ; and if, after he has taken the reins of govern- 
ment, he shall violate this promise, let him be anathema 
maranatha in the sight of the eternal God, and become fuel 
to the eternal fire."t See the oaths on the clergy, in the 
Forma Fidei: and that on the bishops, in the Appendix, 
thus : ^^Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord 
the pope, and his successors, I will to the utmost of my 
power persecute and destroy. ^^ The kings — the ten horns, 
and the secular and regular clergy — the two-horned lamb, 
being thus sworn to the papacy, how could it be otherwise, 
but that the blood of the saints should be poured out as 
water on every hand. 

Add the decree of the council of Tours, under Pope 
Alexander III. A^e ubi, &c. *' No man must presume to 
receive or assist heretics, nor in buying or selling have any 
thing to do with them, that being thus deprived of the com- 
forts of humanity, they may be compelled to repent of the 
error of their way." And in the council of Lateran, under 
the same pope, "iVe quis eos in Domo,^^ &c. " None 
must presume to harbour or in anywise cherish them in 
their houses, or on their lands, or have any traffic with 
them." Tom. 4, p. 504. See also the Bull of Pope Mar- 
tin v., "iV^e hasreticos,^^ &c., in the same awful strain. 
Saith Robert Hoveden, " So dutiful (like other princes) 
was our William the Conqueror to the pope, that he would 
not suffer any one of his subjects to buy or sell any thing 
whom he found disobedient to the apostolic see." 

" The pagan dragon, Dioclesian," says Mr. Mede, 
"made just such another edict in his time, viz. ^ That no 
man must sell or administer any thing to the Christians, 
unless they had first burnt incense to the gods.' " Justin 

* Pro defensione fidei prsestat juramentum quod de terris suae juris- 
dictionis, subjectos universes hsereticos ab ecclesia denotatos, bona tide 
pro viribus exterminari studebunt," &c. IV. Con. Lat. cap. 3. 

+ Caranza, sura. Cone. p. 404. 

31 



362 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

Martyr in his hymn tells us, «* They were not permitted to 
sell any thing, or draw water, until they had offered incense 
to detestable idols." 

Thus did the two-horned beast — or two descriptions of 
papal clergy, united as one, to support the papal doctrine 
and power— speak like the heathen dragon, as saith the pro- 
phecy. Rev. xiii. 11, and gave his power to the regal and 
spiritual papal beast, to make war against the saints of all 
kindreds, and tongues, and nations, to overcome them. Ver. 
7, 17, and ch. xvii. That is, the old dragon, Satan, that 
filled the heathen emperors, called dragons, with his own 
murderous spirit against the saints, the followers of the 
gospel, infused the same, with dreadful increase, into the 
papal dragon, who, "coming after the working of Satan, 
with all power, and signs, and deceivableness," attained, 
as spiritual head, by his artifices, to infinitely more than 
imperial power ; for, by the grand device of private confes- 
sions and absolutions by his numerous clergy, he reached 
the minds of all, and for this same end, even the destruc- 
tion of the saints, and the promotion of worse than the 
old — the former idolatry. And what they (the popes and 
their clergy) did, in thus reducing all orders and degrees of 
men to a state of such servile subjection, no man of the 
least reading can want to be informed. Even kings and 
emperors did not escape ; instance our King John, whom 
the monks actually whipped, and who had to send his royal 
crown to the cardinal, till he, after detaining it as long as 
he liked, was pleased to restore it to him ; and the case of 
the Emperor, Henry IV., of Germany, also, who had to 
stand with a blanket about him, and barefoot, for three days, 
trembling in the cold at the pope's gate, to sue for his 
mercy, &c. &c. 

And that the popes, these emperors of emperors, did 
claim it as their undoubted prerogative, as fathers of all 
Christians, to set up and pull down kings and emperors at 
will, the follov/ing bull of Sixtus V., (once a poor pig-boy!) 
.igainst our Queen Elizabeth, -will be specimen enough. 
" He who reigneth on high, to whom all power is given, 
in heaven and earth, hath committed the one, holy. Catho- 
lic and apostolic church, out of which there is no salvation, 
to be governed with plenitude of power, by one only on 
mrth. This one he hath constituted a prince over all na- 



THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 363 

ttons, and all kingdoms, to pluck up, waste, destroy, plant, 
and build. Supported by his authority, who hath seen fit 
to place me, however unequal to such a charge, in this 
supreme throne of justice, I pronounce and declare in the 
plenitude of my apostolical authority, the said Elizabeth 
laid under a sentence of anathema ; deprived of all right and 
title to her kingdom; her subjects absolved from all oaths 
of allegiance to her : and those who obey her, in the like 
sentence of anathema."* Rett's Hist. p. 23, see p. 311. 

• Let us now, for confirmation of all this hear Pastorini (Dr. 
Walmsly) once more. Saith he, " The angel that promised St. John 
(Apoc. xviL 7) to explain the mystery both of the woman and the 
beast, tells him, ' The beast which thou sawest was, and is not, and 
shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction. The 
seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sitteth ; and 
they are seven kings : five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet 
come; and when he is come, he must remain a short time. And the 
beast which was, and is not, the same also is the eighth, and is of the 
seven, and goeth into destruction.' Behold a very mysterious explica- 
tion of a mystery. The beast, or the Roman idolatrous empire, was, 
that is, existed for a term of time, then, is not, or exists not as the 
empire of idolatry, but is become a Christian empire, Constantine the 
Great having expelled idolatry from the Roman empire, and established 
Christianity in its place. But, ' the beast shall come up out of the bot- 
tomless pit, and go into destruction ;' that is, the Roman idolatrous 
empire will rise up again under antichrist from the bottomless pit ; and 
Satan will revive idolatry, chiefly by means of that wicked man, anti- 
christ, who will become master of the ancient Roman dominions. ' And 
the inhabitants of the earth shall wonder, seeing the beast that vs^as, and 
is not, and yet is ;' that is, the world will be struck with amazement at 
seeing the idolatrous Roman empire reappear, which had been de- 
stroyed." Very true, Dr. Walmsly ; the idolatrous Roman empire has, 
indeed, reappeared, and the enlightened part of the world behold it with 
wonder and horror. 

But we shall hear him farther. " St. John saw a woman drunk 
with the blood of the saints, and of the martyrs of Jesus ,- this harlot 
sat upon many waters, that is, as saith the angel to him, on many king- 
doms, states, and countries, over which she ruled. And ' she sitteth on 
seven mountains,' which is to say clearly, the seven mountains or hills 
on which ancient Rome was built. This same woman is further said to 
'carry on her head this inscription : 'A mystery ; Babylon the great, 
the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth.'* She 
appears dressed in purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold and precious 
stones and pearls. The imperial lady is thus decked out in riches, and 
pride, and purple — the usual robe of the Roman emperors, and scarlet, 
showing her stained with the blood of the martyrs. But, who is tliis 
inhuman woman? this impious Jezebel, and cruel persecuirix, that 



364 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

This shows that the papacy is that beast with ten horns, or 
that ruled over the ten kings, which helped him to destroy 
the saints. 

I say, w^hen not only the vast body of the secular clergy 
of all grades, and the many orders of monks, Jesuits, Domi- 
nicans, Carmelites, &c., <fcc., that swarmed overall countries, 
(all in zeal vieing with each other to promote the glory of 
their head,) but emperors, kings, and princes, with their 
magistrates, and other officers, were thus bound by oath to 
root out of their territories, dioceses, parishes, &;c., all here- 
drenched herself with so much Christian blood which she hath spilt, 
that she appears drunk with it 1 Who is she, but (as tells the angel) 
that great city that hath kingdom over the kings of the earth, idola- 
trous, persecutiiig Rome? This woman being the image of the city of 
Rome, the beast on which she sits very naturally represents the Roman 
empire, (under antichrist.) And as the woman was styled, * The mo- 
ther of fornications and of all the ahominations of the earth, conse- 
quently Rome was represented the seat and centre of idolatry ; and in 
like manner by the beast is the Roman empire represented as the empire 
of idolatry. The colour of the beast is scarlet, an emblem of his san- 
guinary disposition : and is full of blasphemous names — the greatest 
indignity that could be offered to the majesty of the Supreme Being. 

" This great harlot, with whom the kings of the earth committed for- 
nication, and the inhabitants of the same were made drunk with the 
wine of her whoredom, even the delusions of idolatry with which her- 
self had been intoxicated, was elevated to such an unparalleled degree 
of power and grandeur, as raised her to such a height of admiration in 
the eyes of all nations, that they viewed her with the utmost deference 
and respect, and readily embraced ivhatever superstition she herself fol- 
lowed or recommended. She had, moreover, the disposal of kingdoms, 
governments, riches, and dignities,- what wonder then, if, with such 
charms, she debauched the kings and people of the earth"!" Pastorini, 
pp. 114— 117,5th edit. Dublin. 

Than this, from this famous Roman Catholic advocate, what, in every 
line, in every feature of it, can possibly be more fully and clearly de- 
scriptive of the pope, and his church and city, and of the great riches, 
together with the vast power and influence he and she once possessed in 
all the surrounding nations of the earth, and of their readiness to follow 
any superstitions or idolatries he wished 1 And when his account of the 
time of the first appearing of this chieftain of iniquity, as taken from the 
divine prediction and the fathers, that it would happen on the fall of the 
Roman empire, (see p. 301,) is considered, who, not an idiot, can be at 
a moment's loss to see that the popedom is the very thing, and the only 
thing that ever appeared, that meets all he thus states 1 What he 
throws in, of his appearing not to the end of the world, and then for only 
three and a half years, is but a ruse to cast dust into men's eyes, to serve 
an end. 



THE DRUNKEN WOMAN KILLS THE SAINTS. 3G5 

tics and schismatics- — i. e., all followers of Christ and his 
gospel — who of them then could be expected to escape the 
slaughter? Yes, "the woman was gorged — was drunken 
with their blood." Who durst show them any lenity ? 
What prince, king, or emperor, thus bound by oath to ex- 
terminate them, and watched as they were by the clergy, 
and trembling for fear of them, and the colossal power of 
the pope, durst show them any favour? See the oaths on 
popes, bishops, kings, &c., in Appendix. Also the reader's 
particular attention to the annexed extract from Pastorini 
is requested. The papacy thus secured, as on a mountain 
of adamant, and with walls of brass, how could it have been 
expected that this iron reign would ever come to an end, 
this most fearful of curses be ever removed, or that liberty 
of conscience should any more visit the earth, or the gos- 
pel ever have free course, and its followers prevail? The 
very contemplation of so dreadful a state of things, so far 
surpassing any thing that ever before appeared, even the 
worst cruelties of the worst heathenish times, while it makes 
one's blood run cold, and fills the soul with horror and 
consternation, on the one hand; on the other, we are over- 
whelmed with gratitude and glory to God, to Him that 
sitteth on the circle of the heavens, for the days Vv^e now 
live in, for what our eyes now behold, for the vast clemency 
of Protestant, i. e., Christian ascendancy, and for the many 
blessings Romanists themselves, as well as we, now enjoy 
under the British constitution, where the iron hand of papal 
tyranny cannot reach, and each of us may worship, adore, 
and serve the Lord his God, under his vine and fig tree, 
none daring to make him afraid. Glory ! Glory to God ! 
O that we may never forfeit such stupendous mercies by 
our sins ! 

Now, that those thus denounced for heretics, were such 
as wished to obey Christ and his gospel, rather than the 
pope — were Protestants, is clear from the Rhemish notes 
in Dr. Troy's Bible, so called, subscribed by him and Dr. 
Murray, now Archbishop of Dublin, by Dr. Reilly, then 
Primate of Ireland, and by all the Irish Roman Catholic 
prelates and chief clergy generally,* and printed in 1816, 



• Note, on Acts xxviii. 22. " The church of God calling the Protestant 
doctrine heresy in the worst sort that ever was, doth rightly and justly." 
31* 



366 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

by R. Coyne, Dublin. "In this work," (the notes,) said 
the chief divines of Rheims and Douay. in its first editions, 

On Acts xix. 19. "A Christian should deface and burn all heretical 
books." On Heb. v. 7. " The translators of the English Protestani 
Bible should be abhorred to the depths of hell." On Malt. iii. " The 
good must tolerate the evil, when it is so strong that it cannot be re- 
dressed vpithout danger or disturbance of the whole church ; otherwise, 
where evil men, be they heretics or other malefactors, may be punished 
and suppressed without hazard of the good, they may and ought by 
public authority, either spiritual or temporal, be chastised or executed." 

Note on John x. 1. Heb. v. 1. "All Protestant clergy are thieves, 
murderers, and ministers of the devil; leaders of rebellion against the 
lawful authority of the Catholic priests: they are engaged in a damnable 
revolt against the priests of God's church, which is the bane of our 
days and country." On Mark iii. 12. " As the devil, acknowledging 
the Son of God, was bid to hold his peace; therefore heretics' ser- 
mons must not be heard, no, though they preach the truth. Their 
prayers and service, though ever so good in themselves, are, out of their 
mouths, no better than the howling of wolves." On Acts x. 9. " The 
church service of England, being in heresy and schism, is not only uri- 
profitable, but damnable." On Rev. xi. 6, 20. " Christian people, 
bishops especially, should have great zeal against heretics^ and hate 
them, even as God hates them ,■ and be thus zealous against all false 
prophets and heretics of whatsoever name, after the example of holy 
Elias, that, in zeal, killed four hundred aiid fifty false prophets." On 
Luke ix. 55, " As the fact of Elias was not reprehended ; neither is the 
church nor Christian princes blamed by God for putting heretics to 
death." On Acts xxv. 2. " If St. Paul appealed to Caesar not yet 
christened, how much more may we call for the aid of Christian princes, 
for the punishment of heretics." On Heb. xiii. 17. Rev. xvii. 6. 
•' When Rome puts heretics to death, and allows their punishment in 
other countries, their blood is not that of saints, nor is it to be any more 
accounted of than that of thieves, man-killers, or other malefactors." 

Note on 1 Thess. ii. 13. " The adversaries (heretics) will have no 
word of God, but what is written and contained in the Scripture ; but 
here they may learn, that whatsoever the lawful pastors teach in the 
unity of the same church, is to be taken for God's own word." 

Saith the divinity class-book of the Maynooth students, " The church 
retains her jurisdiction over all apostates, heretics, and schismatics, though 
not belonging to her, even as a general has a right to decree more severe 
punishment against a deserter who may have been erased from the 
army-list." This is taken from the Trent catechism. Ex quo fit ut tria 
tantummodo honiinum genera ab ecclesia excludantur, &c. " From 
which it is, that only three sorts of men are cast out of the church — in- 
fidels, heretics, and the excommunicated, which she may still call to her 
bar and condemn and punish," &c. See Hawarden on the true Church 
of Const. 

Saith Dr Milner on his Apostolical Tree, et passim. "There is not, 



THE BEAST DESTROYS THE SAINTS. 367 

" can nothing be found {nihil in hoc opere reperiri queaf, 
quod non sit Catholicse ecclesiae doctrino ac pietati con- 
sentaneum) but what is agreeable to thfr doctrine and piety 
of the Catholic church." And hence, " all the faithful, all. 
true Romanists, must [indubitanter) without hesitation, 
look on the doctrines of those dreadful notes, and of their 
approved pastors, as the voice of God himself:" so they are 
told. That the doctrine of their creed, without the steadfast 
belief of which, they are taught, " none can be saved," is in 
perfect unison with these notes and doctors we shall quickly 
see. Wo, wo, then, to Protestants, in that day whenever 
power enough shall be attained ! 

What informed, candid Romanist can read these sangui- 
nary doctrines with composure and approbation, or can 
possibly believe the God of truth and love is their author, 
or would thus command men to be hated and destroyed for 
obeying his own gospel rather than frail men ? What Pro- 
testant but must see, that if ever this clergy and people attain 
a sufficiency of power, they must be undone ? Nay, what 
informed prelate or priest but must curse these doctrines in 
heart, or wish he had never heard or known them, albeit he 
now may put on a bold front in their defence ? How can 
he, with any hope, connect them with a judgment-day and 
eternity ? Impossible ! But he is on oath to teach them 
till his death ! Mr. O'Connell will yet feel the point of 
this, sooner or later. For, on his first knowledge of them, 
he openly pronounced " the Rhemish notes, teaching as 
they do, ' hatred to and the murder of Protestants, and not 
to keep faith with them,' abominable, murderous, and dam- 
nable ; that if he thought it essential to the Catholic faith, to 
believe such doctrine, he would'not remain one hour ; that 

nor can be in the established church, or other societies of Protestant^, 
any apostolic succession of ministry; and, of course, the whok work of 
the intrusive church, preaching, sacraments, «Scc., being performed by 
mere human authority, is invalid, profane, a perpetual imposition, and 
must be without hope of divine acceptance at the bar of mercy." End of 
Controversy. This is in perfect unison with the notes, and their creed 
too ; but, we shall presently demonstrate, these doctors did not believe, 
themselves, no, not a sentence of the whole ! Alphonus e Castro, 
writes, Ostendimus jam satis, &c. " We have thus plainly proved how 
just it is to kill a heretic; but as to the manner of killing him, this is of 
no moment, for however he may be slain, it serves the church." Lib. 
ii. cap. 12, de just. Haret. poen. Villars on Reform, p. 50, note. 



368 THE LATTER-DAT APOSTASY. 

he owed it therefore to his reUgion, his country, and his 
feelings, to utterly denounce the damnable doctrines con- 
tained in the notes of the Rheraish Testament ; that they 
-should be explicitly and authentically denounced, otherwise 
the constitution would never open its gates to them ; he 
moved therefore for a committee to prepare this denuncia- 
tion, in order to be transmitted to every member of both 
Houses of Parliament, to all the dignitaries of the established 
church, and to the members of the church of Scotland and 
synod of Ulster," &c. This he did in a full Catholic board, 
on December 4, 1817, Hugh O'Connor, Esq., in the chair. 
But here it dropped : for he might as well have proposed to 
denounce his church at once, as I shall here show. To the 
honour of his consistency and conscience, there he sticks, 
after all, to this hour, boldly advocates her purity, and 
steadily bestirs himself all the year round ; not, however, to 
get his priests to cast out the murderous notes and doctrines, 
but to open for them what they so earnestly pant for, the 
gates of power, which he had declared " ought never to be 
opened till these murderous doctrines were strictly dis- 
avowed and denounced! ! !" Where is principle ? 

But priests and he may say, as did Dr. Doyle before 
the London committees, and as did Dr. Troy, when he saw 
these notes made a noise, (but was openly confronted by 
his own printer, R. Coyne, in self-defence,) "We have 
nothing to do with these wicked notes, we know not who 
wrote them, they are not our creed — we abhor them." But 
they are their creed, after all, their very creed ; to a titde 
they are ! For their faith is the creed of Pope Pius IV. 
Now, this creed and these notes are, we shall prove, in 
exact unison ! The Roman clergy are sworn, " damnare^ re- 
jicere, et anathematizare omnia contraria atque hsereses,''^ 
" to damn, reject, and hold accursed, all things contrary to 
it, with all heresy," and to believe, ^'■hanc veram Catholi- 
camfidem extra quam nemo salve esse potest,*' '* that this 
is the true Catholic faith, without which none can be 
SAVED." The laity, of course, believe the same, else they 
would not abide in it and be hypocrites. First, The gos- 
pel is contrary to this creed, as these sheets prove, and so 
therefore was Christ, and so were his apostles, and the 
blessed virgin, and all his people. It is conclusive, then, 
that this clergy are sworn to condemn, reject, and hold 



NUMBER OF THE BEAST's NAME. 369 

accursed the gospel, and Christ, and his apostles, and the 
blessed virgin, and all his people forever. What a clergy ! 
what a creed ! what a church ! 

2. All Protestant clergy teach contrary to the Trent creed, 
and, therefore, (according to the priests' oath,) the way to 
damnation. Now, all such teachers are of course the worst 
enemies of mankind, the worst of murderers and robbers, 
and are ministers of the devil ; and therefore should be de- 
tested by all Christians, and be in conscience suppressed, 
and, with their adherents, rooted out as soon as possible ! 
And the whole of them, with their gospel, books, &;c., are 
the Roman Catholic clergy, the bishops especially, bound 
by solemn oath, damnare, to condemn, abhor, reject, and 
hold accursed, and therefore to devote to extermination 
whenever practicable, or that it can be safely done. Now, 
is not this the very language of the notes ? Yes, to a tittle. 
Hence both are one, and hence did the clergy deduce them 
from the creed as its legitimate offspring. If the creed, 
then, is divine, so are the notes ! but if " the notes be mur- 
derous and damnable, and should be denounced by Mr. 
O'Connell and every Roman Catholic in Ireland," nay, on 
earth, so is the creed the same ; and so are all the cate- 
chisms, books, and clergy that teach it the same ; and of 
course should be abhorred, and instantly and openly de- 
nounced by all Roman Catholics in Ireland and on earth. 
This reasoning can no artifice overthrow. These sangui- 
nary notes, creeds, catechisms, and clergy, must stand or 
fall together. And as no pope, prelate, or priest in his 
senses can believe that any murderous, damnable creed is 
of God, or that any man can have a mission from him to 
teach it, so can none of them possibly believe the Trent 
creed is of God, or that from him its teachers have any 
mission ; or that it is other than the satanic source of innu- 
merable mischiefs to mankind ! And, lastly, as this wicked 
creed is the very faith of the pope and his church, most 
conclusive is it then that he is the predicted head, or beast, 
and she the woman, the very "woman sitting on the beast, 
and made drunken with the blood of the saints." 

15th mark. Number of his Name. — St. John (Rev. xiii. 
18) declares, " The number of his name is 666." Figures 
not having been then, nor till the tenth century known, men 
reckoned by letters. St. John wrote in Greek. Irenaeus, 



370 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

who lived in the second century, affirmed, ♦' That the nu- 
merical letters in his name would make this number." The 
annotators of the Rhemish Testament, on Rev. xiii. 18, 
admit this. The words of Ireneeus are, " Sed et Aa-r-ftvoj, 
nomen hahet numerum 666, et valde verisimile est, quo- 
niam novissimum regnum hahet hoc vocahulum, Latini 
enim sunt qui nunc regnant,''^ &c. " The name Lateinos 
contains the number 666, and this is most like truth, be- 
cause the last kingdom hath this name, for they are Latins 
who now reign; but in this we will not glory." Irenaeus, 
1. 5, c. 30, p. 449. 

When he beheld that the great city on seven hills was so 
accurately described by the Holy Ghost as the seat of the 
apostasy, he asserted Rome to be that city, and that the 
Greek term *'Aa'r'itvoj," Latin, which is peculiarly hers, 
contains the very number: A=30, a=l, 'r'=300, f=5, 
t=10, i'=50, 0=70, j=200, total 666. Also the Hebrew 
title ^^Bomiith,^^ Roman beast or kingdom, doth the same 
exactly: ^=200, o=6, m=40, i=10, t=10, M=400, 
total 666. The pope's Latin title affords the very number, 
^^Vicarius generalis Dei in terris,^^ ^^ God's vicar-general 
on earth:'* V=5, i=l, c=100, i=i, t/=5, /=:50, i=l, 
d==500, i=l, 1 = 1, 1=1, total 666.* Most singular! ! ! 

This, from Irenseus, is far from inconsiderable ; " truly 
this coincidence," saith Bishop Newton, " is even remark- 
able, and the Romish church to this hour, it is worthy of 
notice, is Latin in every part of her service, and this lan- 
guage, and no other, she enjoins on those of her communion 
in all nations, in their worship, as the note and mark of her 
dominion." And Mr. Pyle asserts that no other word in 
any language can be found to express both the same num- 

• Whereas Satan's masterpiece, the mystery of iniquity, a thirst for 
human glory, mixed up with religion, and its very bane, began to show 
itself even among the apostles, saying, " Lord, who shall be greatest 1" 
&c., (Matt, xviii. xx.) but which Christ reproved, assuring them, that 
unless they were converted from it, they should never see the kingdom 
of heaven ; and since God foresaw all this evil mystery would lead to, 
and in his infinite wisdom and goodness warned mankind of it, and 
of all its diversified features and seat, most astonishing is it, and alarm- 
ing, too, that the chief agents in it, and who own that any system of 
religion opposed to Christ is pagan, is antichristian, nor can deny their's 
is such, and also see it connected with the other predicted marks, do not 
take the divine warning ! 



371 

ber and the same thing. Though Bellarmine demurs against 
Irenaeus and his calculation, because of the Greek letter s 
being put into AoT-stvoj, yet it alters not the case ; for, let 
the 6 be even given up, and what this father had in view, 
even the seat of the predicted apostasy, the Latin beast or 
kingdom still contains in its numerical letters the number 
666. For, as by the term beast in holy writ a kingdom or 
a king in succession is designated, (Dan. vii. 17,) these 
great beasts are four kings; ver. 23, the fourth beast shall 
be the fourth kingdom on earth, Rev. xiii. xvii.) so, the 
predicted ^^man of sin,'^ having a twofold kingdom, is 
called a beast in a twofold sense, — the one in reference to 
his secular kingdom, Rome and its states, in common with 
the other kings, the ten horns, his coadjutors in persecuting 
the saints of God ; the other to his spiritual kingdom, which 
he claims as of divine right, as sole successor to Peter, 
prince of the apostles, over the whole Christian world. In 
regard to this vast spiritual kingdom, he is denominated the 
beast, as having a beast with two horns like a lamb — two 
powerful armies of clergy — the secular and the regular, ab- 
solutely sworn to promote and maintain with all their might 
his religion and dominion in every place. 

By these two horns, stoutly maintaining that he is 
Christ's sole vicar, and they his only true followers, he 
deceived the nations, and is therefore called the false pro- 
phet : and because of the bulls which he fulminated, the 
idolatries he taught, and the cruelties which he practised by 
their aid, he spoke as the dragon, Dioclesian, or Nero. In 
this twofold compound kingdom, is comprehended every 
character belonging to this wonderful and awful apostasy, 
viz., ^^ Beast upon seven mountains, two-horned beast, 
man of sin, false prophet, antichrist, scarlet whore, drunken 
with the blood of the saints, number of a man, number of 
his name,'''' &c. And '* to both these kingdoms respectively 
(as saith the learned Adam Clarke, in loco) is the name 
^ Aatwiq ^aoi'Ktta, applicable. And no other kingdom on 
earth but this gj Aatwri .3a(yafta, Latin beast or kingdom, 
contains this said predicted number, 666. Thus, ^=8, 
A=30, a=l, r=300, ^=10, 1^ = 50, ^7=8, i3=2, a=l, 
0=200, t=10, 71=30, £=5, t=10, a=l, total, 666. Here 
then is [soiftci) wisdom, or demonstration ; let him that hath 
(yovv) mind or understanding, count the number of his name * 



37^ THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

it is the number of a man. The man of sin presiding in the 
temple or church of God, invested with two Latin kingdoms 
of a totally different nature, yet both uniting, aided by the 
ten secular, and two spiritual horns, to propagate, with fell 
diligence, idolatry and many other false doctrines, as doc- 
trines of Christ, thus to banish gospel truth and Christ's 
kingdom from the earth, and fill it with corruption, hypo- 
crisy, priestcraft, and papal dominancy: and also pouring 
out the blood of his servants for their rejection of, or oppo- 
sition to such iniquity. 

16th mark. False God, Antichrist, opposing and 
BLASPHEMING Jehovah, &c. — We have examined various 
characters of the predicted apostasy ; its false dogmas, mira- 
cles, church, murders, &c., but, to complete the picture, we 
now have its god to attend to ; whose designations are, 
" Revolter, wicked one, man of sin, son of perdition, beast, 
false prophet, antichrist, god," &c. — "Whose coming is 
jca-r' svspysMv tov Xa'ta.va sv 8vvaiJ.£c, according to the energy 
of Satan, with all power," (fee, that is, this being is a wicked 
man, and revolter from the faith or gospel of Christ, who, 
by Satan's working in and for him, with all earnestness, 
is lifted up to become god, above God, and opposed to 
Him ! He is thus lifted up by the dragon, the two-horned 
lamb, and ten horns of the beast, to sit, i. e. to abide long, 
in the temple of God. 

1. The dragon — the heathen chieftain, Phocas — the mur- 
derer of his emperor, Mauritius, and usurper of his throne, 
exalts the Bishop of Rome, Boniface HI., to the pinnacle 
of the temple — as supreme over the whole Christian church, 
even as was predicted, Kat iSoxtv avta 6 Spaxuv 'trjv Swafitv 
avT'OD, xat "fov ^povov avtov, xai f|oD(?tav jUsyaXjjv. *' And the 
dragon gave him his power, (to maintain him in his supre- 
macy,) and his throne, (in Rome, the seat of the emperors,) 
and vast authority," (all over the empire,) all which was 
continued, with great increase too, to each Bishop of Rome, 
by the succeeding potentates, Lewis the Pious, Pepin, 
and Charlemagne. (See p. 304.) 2. The two-horned lamb, 
the vast body of the secular clergy, and of the monks, in 
name Christian, in voice, like the dragon, that is, in doc- 
trine, idolatrous, enhanced his authority in all the nations ; 
and, 3. The ten kings of those nations supported him and 
them. The two-horned beast, by their multifarious arti 



THE MOCK-GOD ANTICHRIST. 373 

fices, procured that he should be the image of the imperial 
beast, in reference to a temporal kingdom, together with 
having, as spiritual head, imperium in imperio, a kingdom 
in every other kingdom also. 

But, farther, on his demise, they instantly filled up his 
place, by lifting up another to it. *' This they did by (their 
cardinals, in latter days) electing, clothing with pontifical 
robes, crowning, and placing on the altar, the man of their 
choice, and then kissing his feet ; which ceremony is called 
adoration, as appears in the medals of Martin V. where 
two stand as crowning the sovereign pontiflf, and two kneel- 
ing before him, with this inscription. Quern creant adorant, 
"Whom they create they adore." Thus is he at once, 
from being, perhaps, some insignificant individual, (such as 
Sixtus V.) made a god, sitting in the temple of God, — the 
head of all power, and principle of unity to the ten king- 
doms, causing, as far as he is able, all who dare dispute his 
supremacy to be slain." (See Newton on the Prophecies.) 
Being now invested and elevated to be head of all power, 
and, by the council's decree, " his church the mother and 
mistress of all other churches,"* "he shows himself as god, 
sitting in the temple of God," affirming, " that without obe- 
dience to him, from the emperor to the peasant, none can 
be saved."t *' He exalteth himself above God also, and 
blasphemeth Him and his tabernacle." First he showeth 
himself as God, by counterfeiting Him. God sends forth 
his law and gospel, and servants to preach them, declaring, 
that without obedience to them none can be saved : he sends 

• Ecclesia Romana aliarum ecclesiarum mater est et magistra. Con. 
Trid. sess. 7, cap. 3. On the portico of St. John de Lateran's great 
church in Rome, is inscribed, we are told, the following distich: 

Dogmate papali datur simul imperiali 

Ut sim cunctarum mater et caput ecclesiarum. 

" By pope and emperor is this decree, 
► That I the head, the mother church must be." 

•j- Dicimus, definimus, pronunciavimus absolute, necessarium ad salu- 
tem omni humanae creaturae subesse Romano pontifici. " We say, we 
define, we have pronounced it absolute, that it is necessary for every 
human creature, in order to salvation, to be subject to the Roman pon- 
tiff." Extrav. Unam Sanctam, &c. Bellar. Ub. 3, c. 2—5, de Eccl. 
Mil. noster autem. — Corp. Jur. Can. decret. par. 2, q. 7, dist. 21, C. 
(^uamvis. 

32 



374 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

forth his preachers, church-laws, and Trent creed, declar- 
ing, " That without obedience to them none can be saved." 
God searches the heart, forgives sins, and makes men saints 
by his word and grace. The false god searches the heart 
by confessions, forgives sins by indulgences, and by his 
clergy's absolutions, sacraments, &c., and canonizes saints 
to be invocated. God appoints the seventh day for divine 
worship ; he appoints his holidays for his worship. God 
gives two sacraments : he gives seven. God sent forth 
Christ born of a woman, the blessed virgin, as the bright- 
ness of his glory, and the express image of His person, to 
be adored by men and angels : the false god sends forth his 
Christ, made of a wafer-cake, and also of wine, to be 
supremely adored by the faithful, on pain of damnation, 
&c., &c. This being the essence of his worship, is his 
glory, and his image — "The image of the beast." See 
God's decree, Rev. xiv. 7, *' That all who worship the 
beast or his image, or shall receive his mark in his forehead 
or in his hand," i. e. all who shall follow this false god, this 
beast, and his worship, publicly or privately, *' shall be cast 
into the lake of fire." Who, not mad, will after this adore 
the wafer or papal Christ ! 

2. This false god " exalteth himself above, and opposeth 
himself to Jehovah." God who cannot lie, could not there- 
fore make what was made already, nor make a man at the 
same instant visible and invisible to the same person, nor 
him to be the natural son of a woman that never was born 
of her, nor work any self-contradiction ; but this mock God 
can do all these things, as can his priests. For, though 
Christ was born more than 1800 years ago, yet they can, 
they say, make him every day, and in all parts of the world ; 
and though made of a wafer, make him to be the son of 
the blessed Mary, and insist that he was invisible to his 
apostles in the eucharist, though visible and talking with 
them, &c. (fee. 2. " He can dispense against and above 
the law and gospel of God," and of course the priests are 
above all men and angels. See p. 247, 257, 311. Hence, 
he is either above God, or is the most diabolical of blas- 
phemers ! ! ! 

3. He opposeth himself to God. God delivered his ten 
commandments, warning all men to observe them, and 
neither to add to, nor diminish aught from them forever 



THE MOCK-GOD — ANTICHRIST. 375 

But this man of the seven hills disarranges them, casting out 
the second, and the fourth mostly, the part of it that saith, 
"six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work;" splits 
the tenth into two, and sets up image-worship and holy- 
days in flat opposition to the two taken away ! The Holy 
Ghost pronounces all accursed, " who shall take from, or 
add any doctrine to the gospel." But this mock god and 
his clergy have and teach a multitude of dogmas and idola- 
tries which these sheets combat: nay, they are sworn to 
do so all their days ! Again, Christ preached his gospel to 
the multitudes, to the poor, to all, without restriction or dis- 
tinction. His apostles did so, and he commanded it to be 
so done by his servants all days, to the consummation of 
the world : pronouncing him that readeth his words, and 
those who hear them, and keep them, blessed. But this 
blessed example, and all this hearing and reading of God's 
word, is most vehemently opposed by the counterfeit god 
and his clergy, who insist it must not be allowed. 

For this opposition, I shall select one of his most strenu- 
ous servants. Dr. Milner. He spends seven elaborate let- 
ters, seventy-eight pages, in his End of Controversy, to 
show by many arguments the danger of taking the gospel, 
th° Scriptures, as a safe rule of faith, or guide to salvation. 
O desperate ! But we shall spoil his whole work of iniquity 
as in a moment. In a word, we shall make it as clear as 
noonday that he did not believe himself! For the man 
who knowingly contradicts himself, cannot possibly believe 
he is telling truth. Now to our work. 

1. He writes, (letter viii. p. 37,) "If Christ had intended 
mankind should learn his religion from a book, namely, the 
New Testament, he himself would have written that book — 
whereas he wrote nothing at all ; it does not even appear 
that he gave his apostles any command to write the gospel^ 
In same, (p. 46,) *'I remarked, that he, our blessed Master 
and Legislator, Jesus Christ, wrote no part of the New Tes- 
tament himself, and gave no command to his aposdes to 
write it." 

But hear him, in same letter and next page, (p. 37:) "i\^o 
doubt the evangelists were moved by the Holy Ghost in 
writing their respective gospels ! ! !" Again, (letter x.) 
*^True it is, that, during the execution of their commission, 
he, our blessed Master and Lawgiver, Jesus Christ, inspired 



376 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

some of his apostles, and of their disciples, to write the 
canonical gospels and epistles." Ibid. "All Scripture is 
given by inspiration oi God, and is profitable for doctrine^ 
for reproof, for instruction in righteousness,''^ &c. ! ! ! 
Again, "True it is, as Augustine saith, the Scriptures them- 
selves cannot deceive us." 

This is enough ! Who can now say that Dr. Milner 
believed himself that he wrote truth ? or that he did not, as 
it were, kiss Christ, calling him "blessed Master and Legis- 
lator," and belie him in the same breath ? saying, " He 
gave no command to his apostles to write the New Testa- 
ment," and yet owning, " He inspired them to write it?" 
And, he says, " Christ did not intend we should learn his 
religion from the gospel," and yet, "He caused it to be 
written by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and it is profitable 
for doctrine and instruction in righteousness, and can deceive 
no man." And after all, " It is no safe rule of faith or guide 
to salvation." Shame ! But the church, the church, she 
is the guide ! Is there no blasphemy here ? But we have 
not done with him yet. 

We shall now read him a still more terrible lecture, if 
possible ! We shall ring him a peal that shall make every 
ear that hears it tingle ! His oath binds him (and all 
priests) "that the gospel is infallibly true, and that every 
thing opposed to it is false and accursed." The gospel 
(Matt. vii. 24) testifies, that Christ said, " Whosoever 
heareth the sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken 
him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock," i. e. 
" he shall be infallibly saved." Now, what infallibly saves, 
is a sure guide to salvation, and of course is a sure rule of 
faith. But Christ's sermon on the mount infallibly saves 
all who hear and obey it; therefore that sermon is a true 
rule of faith, and whosoever denies it "is accursed." Also, 
St. Peter's sermon to the three thousand murderous Jews, 
proved their salvation ; and that to the gentiles, their salva- 
tion. Acts ii. X. XV., as did St. Paul's sermons to others, &c. 
Now, our Lord's sermon, with all these others, being in the 
Scripture, the true rule of faith is therefore in the Scripture ; 
but Dr. Milner, and every pope and priest being sworn, 
" the gospel, the Scripture, is divine," is then conclusively 
sworn, that in the Scripture is found the infallibly true rule 



DR. DOYLE, DR. MILNER, ANTICHRIST. 377 

of faith, and that all who deny it are accursed of God.* But 
he, his pope, &c., deny it; therefore is Dr. Milner bound 
by his solemn oath on the gospels, that himself, his pope, 
his prelates, priests, &c., are every one accursed of God ! ! ! 
And every pope, prelate, and priest is similarly bound to 
believe the same ! If the pope and his clergy are not, there- 
fore, by their own dogmas in a most frightful plight, let com- 
mon sense, let all men judge. Thus is the doctor's book 
destroyed by the mighty touch of artless truth, as in a moment, 
and the Scripture extricated and vindicated as the safe 
guide to heaven. And thus are this clergy necessitated to 
allow the Scriptures as the only divine rule of faith, or 
themselves as daily perjured, and accursed of God ! 

Having despatched Dr. Milner, &c., we return to the 
false god. He farther opposeth himself to God by fabri- 
cating and sending forth into the world many evil doctrines, 
and gross idolatries, developed in this work, and also a daily 
fourfold worship, that of the wafer, of the chalice, of 
images, and of angels and saints, all opposed to Christ, and 
therefore a daily fourfold idolatry, and a daily prime ser- 
vice to the devil, the father of it ! ! 

4. This beast *' blasphemes God, and his tabernacle, and 
them that dwell in heaven." *' And I saw a woman sit upon 
a scarlet-coloured beast, y^ixov ovofiatc^v ^T^aa^Tjfiia^, full of the 
names of blasphemy." The Holy Ghost tells us that blas- 
phemy is impious speaking, in reference to God, or inju- 
rious, when directed against our neighbour. ".^ name of 
blasphemy,''^ is the prostitution of a sacred name to an un- 

• Tertullian saith, Id verius quod prius, id prius quod est ah initio, 
ab initio quod ab apostolis, ah apostolis quod ah Christo qui Veritas 
sempiterna est. ** What is truest is most ancient, what is most ancient, 
was from the beginning ; what was from the beginning is what was 
from the apostles, and what was from them came from Christ, who ia 
eternal truth." Lib. 4. adv. Marc, c. 5, de Virg. Veland. c. 1. Again 
Fides in regula posita est, nihil ultra, scire est omnia scire. " Faith 
is contained in a rule ; (the gospel,) to know nothing beyond it, is to know 
all things." Again, Hoc primum credimus, nihil esse ultra quod cre- 
dere debeamus. " This we first believe, that there is nothing beyond 
(the gospel) what we should believe." De Praescrip. cap. 14, ib. cap. 8. 
Again, Ipsa enim doctrina eorum cum apostolica comparata, &c. " For 
their own doctrine, when compared with that of the apostles, will, by its 
diversity and contrariety, pronounce that it is from no apostle or apos- 
tolical man." Praescrip. adv. Hseres. c. 32. If a doctrine now is so. 
but from the beginning was not so, there is a change ! 
32* 



378 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

holy purpose, as is evident from Rev. ii. 9. "I know the 
blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not, but 
are of the synagogue of Satan." Now, this false God, not- 
withstanding his wickedly opposing himself to God, calls 
himself " Christ's sole vicar on earth, and by Him is consti- 
tuted a prince over all nations, and all kingdoms, to pluck 
up, waste, destroy, plant, and build ;" — " the servant of the 
servants of God ;" he is titled, " most holy Father," (fee, 
and his church, that framed all his wicked dogmas and 
idolatries, " the one, holy. Catholic, and apostolic church ; 
mother and mistress of all churches :" his idolatrous wor- 
ship, " the most adorable sacrifice of the mass," &;c. Thus 
doth he by making God the author of all these falsehoods, 
''blaspheme his name ;" and also his true gospel worship- 
pers, or tabernacle, by denominating them heretics, schis- 
matics, and such like vile names, and then destroying them 
when practicable. And, lastly, he blasphemes them that are 
m heaven : angels, the blessed virgin, and other saints, by 
paganish invocations of, and ascribing to them powers and 
offices which belong not to them, all which are abomina- 
tions to God and them. Thus hath he and his wicked 
woman by "blaspheming God, and his tabernacle, and them 
that are in heaven," fulfilled the prediction. 

5th. Antichrist.* — Whatsoever system is opposed to 
Christ is antichristian ; if a creed, a system of religion op- 
posed to the gospel be taught by any body of professing 
Christians, that body, when found teaching the same doc- 
trine are as one man, and therefore form one antichrist, one 
false prophet. But the pope and his vast body of twofold 
clergy are sworn to teach a creed — a system of religion 

• Gregory the Great saith : Quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat 
in elatione sua antichristum praecurrit. " Whoever in his pride calls 
himself universal priest, is antichrist's harbinger." Platina writes, (in 
Paschal Florentinus Episcopus affirmare solitus est antichristum na- 
tum esse,) "Florentinus, Bishop, was used to say, That antichrist was 
born," Roger Hoveden writes, " That Abbot Johachim, in conversing 
with Richard I. of England, and Philip II. of France, on antichrist, said, 
Quod Jam natus est in civitate Romana et in sedem apostolicam suhli' 
mabitur. " That already he was in Rome, and should be lifted up to the 
apostolical chair." Hoved. Annal. Post, in Rich. I. p. 681. And St, 
Bernard said : " That the popes were the ministers of Christ, (i. e. were 
called so,) but served antichrist; and that the apocalt/ptic beast occupied 
St. Peter's chair." Usser. de Christ. Eccl. Sur. et Stat. c. 7, § 5, 6. 



DR. DOYLE, DR. MILNER, ANTICHRIST. 379 

flatly opposed to Christ and his gospel, as is just proved ; 
therefore they have conclusively bound themselves by oath 
to be antichrist — false prophet, and him the head, the great 
antichrist ; exactly as was predicted ! 

I shall now attend to one or two of his advocates, Drs. 
Doyle and Milner, in defence. Dr. Doyle, pretending not 
to see how this designation applies to the papacy, forms this 
argument : (letter to Lord Wellesley :) "An antichrist is he 
that dissolves Jesus ; and such as go out from his people 
are so designated by the apostle. But we confess Jesus, 
that he is God and man ; we have gone out from nobody, 
nor from any congregation : on what ground, then, we can 
be considered as forming one body with those antichrists, I 
am altogether incompetent to discover." — Here is a sophism, 
a crafty sophism ! but we shall take leave to spoil it as in a 
moment. The devils verbally confessed Jesus ; (Mark iii. 
12 ;) falling down before Him, they cried, saying: "Thou 
art the Son of God," Yet they were no friends to Christ — 
no Christians, but the determined opponents of Him and 
His gospel. But this doctor and his brethren are sworn to 
dogmas opposed to Christ and his gospel ; and hence they 
are opponents to Christ, and are gone out from him and his 
people ! What now is become of his fine sophism ? And 
" the odious name" is necessarily, by his oath, and creed, 
bound to him and his church and head forever. Shame ! 
doctor. O that men would open their eyes ere too late ! 

Dr. Milner (letter 45) is out of temper, is quite shocked 
about this matter ! He foams and frets, and throws a deal 
of dust about him : but it all won't do. He has his sophism 
too, but it is only froth that sinks at a touch. He exclaims : 
" I shudder to repeat these blasphemies, and I blush to hear 
them uttered by my fellow-Christians and countrymen, who 
derive their liturgy, their ministry, their Christianity and 
civilization from the pope and the church of Rome," &c. ! 
This is the substance of his whole letter. Passing by much 
I could say, I shall here only remark : Protestants derive no 
Christianity from the pope and his church, who have it not 
themselves ! They know no Christianity, they own no re- 
ligion, but what came from heaven — but that that is derived, 
not from frail creatures, but from Christ and his gospel and 
grace: true Protestants know no ministry, nor own any but 
what teaches the gospel only; nor liturgy, nor catechism, 



380 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

&c., but such as they conceive to be in agreement with the 
gospel, so understood, that no one part shall clash with 
another. (Art. 6 — 20, of the 39.) They would no more 
touch Dr. Milner's idolatries or ministry than they durst 
Mahomet's fooleries or, rather, wickedness. Hence is the 
doctor's scheme also blown up : and his, and the mouth of 
every one of them must be shut, till they can prove their 
doctrine is the gospel of God : but this can never be done. 

The conclusion now is, that all these predicted marks: 
*' Man of sin in the temple of God, showing himself as God, 
exalting himself above God, opposing himself to God, blas- 
pheming his name, his tabernacle, and them in heaven," and 
thus proving himself " the antichrist," are incontestably 
proved to belong to the papacy and it only. 

17th mark. Duration. — The fixed term of antichrist's 
existence is "A time, times, and half a time, or three and a 
half years, or forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty 
prophetic days, i. e. twelve hundred and sixty years. That 
this is so, is evident: 1st. From Dan. ix. where seventy 
weeks are determined for the existence of the Jewish polity, 
from the going forth of the edict of Artaxerxes. Seven to 
the rebuilding of the temple, and sixty-two after that 
to the death of Messiah : and afterwards one, while the 
Romans were destroying and dispersing the Jews. Now, 
those were evidently, not natural, but prophetic weeks, 
that is, four hundred and ninety years. From which, and 
other such passages in holy writ, it is plain, the above 
twelve hundred and sixty days are not three and a half 
literal years, but twelve hundred and sixty years for 
antichrist's reign, to be calculated, as most believe, from the 
year 606, when first the Bishop of Rome obtained from the 
Emperor Phocas the title of Universal Bishop, &c. 2d. 
From the many great events that were to take place — the fa- 
bricating of doctrines, and insensibly spreading them through 
all the nations ; the attaining rule over their kings ; the vast, 
long, and bloody persecution of the saints, whereby they 
were, for ages, worn down ; and the final overthrow of tliis 
apostate chief, and of his whole system and dominion, by 
the kings of those very nations which once helped him. 
All these events, none of which took place while Rome was 
pagan, prove, that not three and a half years, but twelve 
hundred and sixty are meant; and that not Rome pagan, 



MAN OP sin's duration. 381 

but Rome papal is it that is desi^ated with such accuracy, 
and which, at the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years, 
according to the prophesied time, now drawing nigh, must 
fall to rise no more forever. 

If any one will compare Daniel's " little horn, having 
eyes like a man, &;c., a mouth speaking great things against 
the Most High," i. e. promulgating his own laws in the place 
of the holy laws of God, and " making war with his saints," 
but in the end to be destroyed, Dan. vii. ; with St. Paul's 
*• man of sin and son of perdition, who opposeth and ex- 
alteth himself above all that is called God," but is at the end 
to perish ; and will with all this collate what St. John (Rev. 
xiii — xviii.) says of the beast with ten horns, and the two- 
horned beast like a lamb, a body of idolatrous prophets, 
which deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, and of that 
great city that ruleth over the kings of the (Latin) earth, but 
in the end and at the appointed time to be destroyed forever; 
I say, whoever shall compare them together, will clearly 
see, that it is of the one and very same awful apostasy, that 
Daniel, Paul, and John prophesied. 

Tertullian, writing on religion, says, "Omne genus ad 
originem suam recenceatur necesse est.^^ •' It is necessary 
to trace every kind to its origin." If then men trace a 
river not to the broad parts, but to its rise, and a general not 
to his victories, but to his investment, we should do the same 
with regard to the beast, the man of sin, that we thus may 
learn the time of his end. " This wicked man (saith Cra- 
kanthorp, Annal. lib. 5) was antichrist, nascens, born, in 
Boniface III., when invested with supremacy. Was anti- 
christ, crescens, growing, in Adrian I. an. 787, when the 
second council of Nice set up image-worship ; and anti- 
christ, regnans, reigning, in Hildebrand — Gregory VII., 
an. 1075, when he could hurl even emperors and kings 
from their thrones, and rose above God himself and his 
word, whose voice must now either be silent, or speak 
what and when this new god pleases !" 

This is he, it is clear, who, after the removal of the Ro- 
man pagan empire, was that eighth head that came up 
{ex trj? a^vaaov) from the bottomless pit, and goeth into per- 
dition : who also presiding in the temple of God, and cor- 
rupting it, by the aid of the two-horned lamb, is termed the 
*' false prophet," which together are doomed to be cast alive 



382 THE LATTER-DAY APOSTASY. 

into the lake of fire. Rev. xix. ; and to whom pertains the 
murderous woman, the city or church, which the ten horns 
shall turn upon and hate, and burn her with fire ; (These 
ten, at the reformation, were England, Scodand, France, 
Spain, Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, 
Sweden:) so that " her plagues shall come in one day, death, 
and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt 
with fire, for strong is the Lord God (o xpivuv ojvtriv) who 
judgeth her."* "Rejoice over, thou heaven, and ye holy 
apostles and prophets : for God hath avenged you of her," 
(for her overthrow of the saints and of the gospel of God.) 
*♦ And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great mill- 
stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, (OvT-uf opfirifiatt, 

SX'/j^asttlc Baj3vXcov vj (xsyaXy] TtoXtj, xav ov firj EvpsOr^ fJ't?) Thus 

with violence shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown 
down, and shall be found no more at all," Rev. xviii. 8 — 21. 
That Babylon means Rome, is proved : Rome still exists ; 
therefore, over the city, pope, and church of Rome, do 
these judgments hang. And soon, (see note, p. 128,) 
will all this dreadful scene be closed ! And as God's 
word is immutable, and that his voice of mercy is, 
" Come out of her, my people, that ye receive not of her 
plagues," (Rev. xviii. 4,) so must all who regard their God, 
or their eternal salvation, flee from her idolatries at once 
and forever. 

Having thus, in the holy fear of God, and duty to Him 
who gave himself for us, traced ou-t this most frightful apos- 
tasy, in its many doctrines, idolatries, deceptions, cruelties, 
and blasphemies, which I trust, it will be seen, I have even 
demonstrated, that no informed pope, prelate, or priest ever 
did believe, no, nor the creed of Pius IV., they spring from, 
though unhappily sworn on the Gospels, to teach them till 
death! (O, infidelity unparalleled !) I say, having thus 

• The prophecy tells of an " angel flying through the midst of 
heaven, preaching the everlasting gospel to every nation, tribe, tongue, 
and people — and another angel followed, crying, Babylon is fallen, is 
fallen, that great city," &c. Pastorini (p. 238, 286) written fifty years 
back, " That this flying angel is a body of his servants upon whom God 
would pour out his Spirit to go out against antichrist, by swiftly send- 
ing the gospel all over the world." Most true ! Now, the Bible Society, 
Missionary and School Societies, &c. &c., so lately sprung up, is this 
very thing, must be this angel, and Babylon's doom then must be near ! 



383 

brought to light the hidden things of darkness, not to injure 
any child of man, but to try, in reliance on the aid and 
blessing of God, to open men's eyes to their danger, those 
of my countrymen especially, after whose present and eter- 
nal good I have long panted and laboured, day and night, I 
now come to the close. 

I must, however, ask every candid Romanist, after he 
has examined my views of the subjects herein discussed, 
can he find any man, church, or city on earth, save the 
papacy only, to which all those predicted marks belong? 
God has merciMly pointed them out, for man's safety and 
eternal good, and we should thankfully examine. To Ma- 
homet, wicked a deceiver as he was, they cannot belong. 
He was not perpetuated by a similar successor, nor in the 
same city of seven hills, as is the sovereign pontiff. Nor 
did he forbid his clergy's marriage, nor command an un- 
known tongue in his worship, nor assume to be Christ's 
vicar, nor did he obtain supremacy over all churches, 
hence, he cannot be the man ; nor did Luther, Calvin, nor 
any other that ever lived, bear these characters, but the pope 
alone. Hence it must follow, either that no one, such as 
the prophecies have pointed out, has ever appeared, or that 
the man of the seven hills is assuredly that character. And 
now, O my God, my God, hear, for Christ's sake, hear 
my prayer, and pour thy enriching blessing on this book, 
this little effort to promote thy glory, and bring those for 
whom it was written to thy gospel salvation, and to thy 
presence, thy glory, and thy kingdom for evermore. Amen, 
and Amen. 

GIDEON OUSELEY, 

METHODIST IRISH MISSIONARY. 

September 10, 1827 



APPENDIX. 



OBSERVATIONS, ARGUMENTS, AND IMPORT- 
ANT DOCUMENTS. 

Christ, who is {sempitcrna Veritas) the eternal truth, 
saith, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man 
cometh to the Father but by me." John xiv. 6. 

1. The religion of Christ is an eternally true religion: 
llie gospel is that religion, therefore the gospel religion is 
the eternally trus religion, and the narrow, safe way to 
heaven : and every religion opposed to it is eternally false, 
and is the broad road to eternal ruin. 

2. The attributes of God being infinitely perfect. His 
wisdom, power, goodness, knowledge, mercy, justice, truth, 
and love, are infinitely perfect also, hence. He is infinite in 
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. The Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost possessing a nature uncreated, and 
unoriguiate, are therefore necessarily coequal and coeternal 
together; good, and everywhere present, ready to show 
mercy and communicate good. 

Any system of religion purporting to have emanated from 
God, if it clash not with the harmony of sacred Scripture, 
or of the divine attributes, mnst be true: but if otherwise, 
it cannot be true ; if deduced from the attribute of Omnipo- 
tence, yet if it be found to involve self-contradiction, so as 
to make the Holy One a God of falsehood, as in the case 
of transubstantiation ; or if from the attribute of infinite 
mercy, so as to exhibit Him as saving all devils and wicked 
men in dereliction of his justice, and thus making him a 
God of folly, as did Winchester; or if from his infinite 
33 335 



386 APPENDIX, 

* 

justice, so as to make Him an inflexible tyrant; or from 
his infinite knowledge, so as to conclude him a God of 
caprice, partiality, and cruelty; in all these cases, it must 
be concluded wrong views of the divine attributes have 
been taken, and their harmony and that of the Scriptures 
forgotten. Hence tho pious Christian must seek another 
view, nor rest till he have that which harmonizes with Scrip- 
ture, reason, and the divine attributes. 

BAPTISM. — SEVEN SACRAMENTS, NO INFORMED POPE OR 

PRIEST BELIEVES THEY ALL ARE TRUE. 

Each of them is sworn on the Gospels, " That there are 
seven sacraments of the new law instituted by Christ." 
Bui. Pii IV. Sup. Juram Form. But it is proved (p. 54, 
66) that five are spurious ! and the two that our Lord insti- 
tuted are corrupted by the papal church. 

1. The eucharist, byimaking it a proper sacrifice, and 
the object of supreme adoration, is so deeply corrupted with 
idolatry, (see p. 233 — 244,) that no informed person dare 
approach it in that cliurch. 

Baptism is, by the doctrine of intention, and misstate- 
ments, so corrupted, that no sensible person in that church 
can be without constant teiTor and alarm.* For she teaches, 
" That without it there is no salvation," nor, of course, good 
to be derived from any other sacrament; nor can baptism 
be valid without true intention of doing what the church 
requires, and natural water. Who then in that church can 
be certain the baptizer had this intention, &c. ? Hence, 
there can no certainty or ease of mind be to any, not stupid. 
Now I shall prove no priest can have the intention his church 
requires. For no informed priest can believe Christ was 
wrong, or that himself is greater than St. Peter, hence no 
such intention is possible ! To make this clear, I thus argue. 

Before Adam sinned there was no condemnation to him 
or his seed : when he sinned condemnation followed. But 
God preached the gospel to him, " That the seed of the 

* Saith Bossuet, from the Trent council, "As infants cannot supply 
the want of baptism by acts of faith, hope, and charity, nor by the earnest 
desire of receiving this sacrament: we believe, if they do not rcallif 
receive it, ihnj have no share in the grace of redemption, and thus 
■h/ing in Adam, they have no inheritance with Jesus Christ." Boss. 
Expos, p. 42. Con. Trid. sess, vi. cap. 4. 



APPENDIX. 387 

woman, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the work!, 
would bruise the serpent's head," i. e. " destroy Satan's 
works:" believing this, he was justified, and condemnation 
being removed from him, and all in him, his seed was of 
course justified through Christ. Hence, as condemnation 
came by his one offence on him and his seed, justification 
came by the righteousness (the infinite merit and promised 
death) of one, even Christ, on him and his seed. Rom. v. 
18. And hence, through this grand first justification, con- 
demnation lies on no infant ; and its corruption is in due 
time removed by sanctification. Therefore was no infant 
(though corrupt in nature, which is not imputed, Rom. iv. 
15) ever born in a state of condemnation. This our Lord 
proves, (Luke xviii. 16,) saying, "Suffer little children to 
come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." But 
no condemned one is of heaven, hence was none of these 
infants in a condemned state ; nor therefore were any others 
on earth: for God is no respecter of persons. God saith, 
(Ezek. xviii.) " The son shall not bear the sin of the father." 
Again, Abraham, the first of the Jewish church, was justi- 
fied by faith, before his circumcision; and Cornelius, and 
his company, the origin of the gentile church, were purified 
by faith, (Acts x. 47 ; xv. 9,) before their baptism. Hence 
their sins, in both cases, were removed before the ordinance 
was applied ; and hence clear is it, it was not the rite that 
took away sins, but faith ; and circumcision was added, as 
a sign, seal, or expression of the justification antecedently 
received ; Rom. iv. 11 : and baptism was added by St. Peter 
for the same end exactly. But Abraham, by God's com- 
mand, gave his infants circumcision, not to remove con- 
demnation, which existed not, as now proved ; but as an 
expression of the justification they had through Christ, and 
as a visible mark of church-membership ; consequently every 
infant is, by the same divine command, and on the same 
ground, entitled to that expression or sign of justification 
his parents have. But as baptism is now the Christian 
'sign, every Christian's infant is, by legitimate scriptural 
authority, entitled to it, not to remove its condemnation, but 
to signify its previous justification in Christ; and its future 
church-membership. Now, as St. Peter did not remove sin 
by baptism, which was removed before it, and as no priest 
can believe he has greater power than St. Peter, so can no 



3S8 APPENDIX. 

informed priest have an intention to do as his church 
requires, namely, to remove guilt by baptism ; nor can he 
believe any infant in danger of exclusion from heaven with- 
out it, till he can believe Christ and St. Peter wrong ! And 
as Christ never spoke a self-contradiction, then must every 
sensible man understand John iii. 5, "Except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God," lo apply to adults who hear the gospel, 
and must obey it in all its parts, or perish; and not to infants 
or heathens, who hear it not. Otherwise understood it would 
involve Christ, his apostles, and the scriptures (Luke xviii. 
16. Acts X. 35. Rom. ii. 10 — 14, 28) in instant self-con- 
tradiction. And hence evident it is, that the papal law about 
baptism — and indeed every thing — is priestcraft to frighten 
the foolish, and make them fill their coffers. Their solemn 
baptism of bells, in the name of the Holy Trinity, by their 
bishops, proves this, and is such a profanation of, and 
blasphemy against Christ and his ordinances, as makes 
every tender mind shudder.* 

THE SWORN OBLIGATIONS TO UPHOLD THE PAPACY. 

The Pope's Oath — By the councils of Basil, Constance, 
&c., "All popes must be obliged to &wear, that tliey will 
uphold and enforce the faith maintained in general councils, 
to the least tittle, even to the shedding of their blood." 
" Further, that he shall depose, and deprive sovereign princes 
of their dominions, their dignity, and honours, for certain 
misdemeanors." Con. Constan. sess. 12, 17, 37, 39. Basil, 
sess. 34, 37, 40, 46. Pisa, sess. 14. Lyons, tom. ii. Binii, 
p. 646. 

Bull of Gregory VIIL "On the part of the omnipotent 
God, I forbid Henry IV. to govern the kingdoms of Italy 
and Germany ; I absolve his subjects from all oaths which 
they have taken, or may take to him: and I excommunicate 

* "The bishop, calling on the godfather and godmother of the hell, 
for its name, then proceeds to baptize it, thus : Consecretur et sandificetur 
signum illud, in nomine Pairis, et Filli, et Spiritus Sancti. Tu, hoc 
tiutinabulum, Spiritus Sancte rore perfunde, ut ante sonitum illiua 
semper fugiat inimieus bonorum, ' Let this sign be consecrated and 
sanctified in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. — Sprinkle 
this bell, O God, with the dew of the Holy Ghost, that at its sound the 
devil may ever take flight! Amen." And then cries aloud, "This hell's 
name is Mary." See Sir Humphrey Lynde's Vita Tufa, 1631 1 



APPENDIX. 389 

every one who shall serve hun as king." Greg. lib. 5, epist. 
24. See this book, p. 295, 320, 365. 

Pope's Bull in Ccena Domini, to be studied by the clergy, 
published in the churches once a year, at least, and carefully 
taught the people, per art. 27, 28 — The excommunication. 
*' VVe excommunicate and anathematize, in the name of 
Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the 
authority of , his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and by 
our own, all WicklifEtes, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, 
Hugonots, Anabaptists, and all other heretics, by whatso- 
ever name they are called, and of whatsoever sect they be ; 
and also all schismatics, and those who withdraw them- 
selves, or recede obstinately from the obedience of the Bi- 
shop of Rome; as also their adherents, receivers, favourers, 
and generally any defenders of them : together with all who 
without the authority of the apostolic see shall knowingly 
read, keep, or print any of their books which treat on reli- 
gion, or by or for any cause wliatever, publicly, or privately, 
on any pretence whatever defend them."* Behold the 
pope's triumph and joy at the murder of Protestants.t 

Oath of Bishops to the Pope. — " I, N. N. Bishop 
elect of the see of N., do swear, that from this time hence- 
forth I will be faithful and obedient to the blessed apostle 
Peter, to the holy church of Rome, and to our lord the pope, 
and his successors canonically appointed. I will, to my 
utmost, defend, increase, and advance the rights, honours, 
privileges, and authority of the holy Roman church, of our 
lord the pope, and of his successors aforesaid. I will not 
join in any consultation, act, or treaty, in which any thing 
shall be plotted to the injury of the rights, honour, state, and 
power of our lord the pope, or of the said church. J will 
keep with all my might the rules of the holy fathers, (i. e., 
of the councils,) the apostolical decrees, ordinances, dispo- 

• Tom. 8, p. 183. Constit. 63. Pauli V. an. 1C38. "This bull is 
(per art. 28) to be diligfently studied by the clergy, and (per art. 27) 
to be solemnly published in the churches once a year, or oftener, and care- 
fully taught the people." 

■j- " Pope Gregory XIII. upon the massacre of St, Bartholomew's day, 
in Paris, an. 1572, caused medals with this inscription about his image 
to be struck, * Gregorius XIII. Pont. Max. an. I.' and on the reverse 
side a destroying angel holding^a cross in one hand, and in the othe- 
a sword, thrusting, with these words, ^ Hugnotorum Sf rages, 1572' 
' The slaughter of the Hugonots,^ '^ Voyage to Italy, p. 15, an. 1C88. 
33* 



390 APPENDIX. 

sals, reservations, provisions, and mandates, and cause them 
to be observed by all others under my jurisdiction. 

*^ Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord the 
pope, and his successors aforesaid, I will, to the utmost of 
my power, persecute and destroy. ''^^ Sub Julio III. an. 
1551. 

THE OATHS AND OBLIGATIONS ON BISHOPS, INQUISITORS, AND 
ON ROMISH KINGS, TO DESTROY PROTESTANTS, AND THli 
MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE TO BE PUNISHED.t ScC pp. 

361—365. 

The Priest's Oath. — " I firmly receive and profess all 
things which the sacred canons and general councils, that 

* Kicherius, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and of the fifteenth century, 
observes, " That Pope Gregory VII., contrary to the custom used in the 
church for more than a thousand years, introduced that order, ' That all 
bishops must swear unlimited fidelity and obedience to the pope ;' 
whence, the liberty of all succeeding councils was taken away." Richer. 
Apol. ax. 22. Hist. Concil. Ub. c. 38. 

•f- " The punishment to be inflicted on heretics must be excommuni- 
cation, confiscation of goods, imprisonment, exile, or death, as the case 
may be." Cone. Benii. tom. 8. "Bishops are, by the council of Con- 
stance, by the canon law, and by their above oath of consecration, bound 
thus to punish heretics. And if any bishop be negligent in purging his 
diocese of heretical pravity, he, by canon 3, of 4th Lateran council, 
must be deprived of his episcopal dignity'^ Cone. Benii. tom. ii. p. 
152. Cone. Const, sess. 45, tom. 7. Decret. 1. 5, tit. 7, cap. 13. 

" All IxauisiTORs of heretical pravity appointed by the pope, all 
archbishops and bishops, in their respective provinces and dioceses, with 
their officials, must search for and apprehend heretics, — the civil ma- 
gistrates must assist them, under severe penalties, in inquiring after, 
taking, and spoiling them, by sending soldiers with them ; they can 
compel the whole neighbourhood to swear. They must inform the 
bishops and inquisitors oi any heretics they may know of, or of any who 
may favour them." Concil. Ben. tom. ii. p. G08 — 619. Constit. Innoc. 
IV. c. 30. 

The councils of Lateran and Constance have declared, " That who- 
ever apprehends heretics, which all are at liberty to do, has poiver to 
take from them all their goods, and freely enjny them." 4 Later, tom. 
ii. part. 1, p. 152. Const, sess. 45, tom. 7. Ben. p. 1120. And by In- 
nocent III. it is declared, " This punishment of them (the heretics) we 
command to be executed on them, by all princes and secular powers, 
who shall be compelled to do so by ecclesiastical censures." Decret. 7, 
I. 5. tit. cap. 10. 

An edict of eighteen articles against heretics by Lewis XV., an. 1 724, 
art. ! , 2, enjoins, " That the Catholic religion alone be professed in our 



APPENDIX. 391 

of Trent especially, have delivered, defined, and declared ; 
and all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatever 
that the church has condemned, rejected, and anathematized, 
I likewise condemn, reject, and anathematize. All this 1 
promise, vow, and swear; so help me God," &c. Bui. 
Pii IV. sup. Juram. Form. Fid. 

Behold the dreadful statutes of Richard II. c. 5, Henry 
IV. c. 15, and of Henry V. c. 7, framed under papal influ- 
ence, to cause their suhjects either to be idolaters or be 
destroyed.* And what was done in other kingdoms is no 
secret. 

"Of a major excommunication," saith Priest Burke, in his Tract, 
published in the county of Sligo, in 1817, " The inflictions are contained 
in this line, os, orare, vale, communio, mensa negatur, 'the faithful 
shall neither speak to, nor pray in company with, nor salute or show 
any kindness to, nor have any dealing with, nor eat with or give any 
thing to eat to any excommunicated person.' " 

kingdom, forbidding all our subjects, of what estate, quality, or condition 
soever, to profess any other religion, or assemble for that purpose, in any 
place, under any pretence whatever, on pain of men to be condemned to 
the galleys forever, and women to be shorn, and shut up forever in such 
places as our judges shall think proper, with confiscation of goods. 

" We order that all such preachers as have convened assemblies not 
according to the said Catholic religion, or shall have preached or dis- 
charged any other function therein, shall be punished with death. We 
forbid all our subjects to receive any such ministers or preachers, or give 
them any retreat, succour, or assistance, or have any manner of commu- 
nication with them. And we order all who shall have any notice 
thereof to discover it to the officers of their places : the whole on the 
aforesaid penalties." Given at Paris, &C., &c., an. 1724. 

The address of the bishops to the king, an. 1765, proves this cursed 
edict was the clergy's work: say they, " Give, sire, give to the laws all 
their force, and to religion all its splendour, that the result of our humble 
remonstrances may be the full revival of the edict of 1724. The plague 
we complain of will continue to ravage your kingdom, till the press also 
shall be restrained by laws faithfully executed." 

* " Any persons who affirm images should not be worshipped, shall 
be holden in strong prison until they take an oath they will worship 
them." " That the bishop or ordinary may convene before him or im- 
prison any person suspected of heresy, and that an obstinate heretic be 
burned before the people." "That all officers of government shall be 
sworn to assist the ordinaries to extirpate heretics ,• who, being convicted, 
shall forfeit all their fee simple lands, goods, and chattels, and shall bf 
delivered to the ordinaries, and expiate their offences in flames of fire." 
Sir E. (/oke, Inst. 3, p. 40, 41. Inst. 4, p. 51. 



$92^ APPENDIX. 

The Ribbonmen's oath is to cut off heresy, and establish 
the Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom.* 

Here at one view we have, 1. The oath of popes, bishops, 
priests, ribbonraen, &c., with their creed and notes (p. 365 
— 369) all in perfect unison to exterminate Protestants in 
every way possible ; 2. The variety of punishments decreed 
for them ; 3. The proof that no informed pope or priest 
believes the doctrines he is sworn to teach are true, or are 
other than so many impious inventions framed to uphold 
the papacy ; 4. That the laity, not aware of this imposture, 
are ever at their clergy's beck to execute their will, let what 
will be the result to themselves or others ! 

A plain question for statesmen, Protestants, and lay Ro- 
manists, now arises : should a great army of pagans besiege 
a Christian city, and from the general to the private be 
known to be sworn, either to destroy these citizens or make 
them turn idolaters, ought they on any account open their 
gates to them? Who, not insane, will say they ought? 
If not, the application is easy. This whole clergy are 
bound together on oath to destroy all Protestants and make 
them papal idolaters, and they have the laity at their will ; 
on what ground then should the gates be opened ? should 
the power they clamour for be ceded to them ? Yield it, 
and if they watch not for every opportunity to annihilate 
Protestants and their institutions, they must be constant 
perjurers : but if they keep their oaths, and use their ener- 
gies, shall not anarchy, confusion, and blood fill the land ? 
Either then let the priests quit their wicked oaths, or the 
people quit the priests, and the gates may then fly open at 
once : but not till then. See p. 368. 

THE PAPAL CLERGY SELF-DESTROYED ! 

Every pope and priest grants that all doctrines opposed 
to Christ and his gospel are false and antichristian, and that 
the teachers of them are false prophets and antichrist'-', 
leading their followers to perdition : but he and his whole 

* " The object and oath of the Ribbonmen are, as it is unquestionably 
proved, the subversion of the constitution, the separation of Ireland from 
Great Britain, the extirpation of all the Protestant inhabitants out of the 
country, and to establish the Roman Catholic religion in their stead." 
Mr. Plunket's speech, Nov. 1822. Chief Justice Bushe's speech at the 
Wicklow Assizes was in substance the same. 



APPENDIX. 393 

clergy, it is proved, teach a multitude of doctrines opposed 
to Christ and his gospel, and are sworn to do so ; ergo, if 
they are not by their frightful system of religion sworn to 
be false prophets and antichrists, and to destroy themselves 
and their followers eternally, let them deny if they are 
able ! 

The Protestant Rule of Faith infallible ! — Hav- 
ing proved the pope's rule of faith false and ruinous, (p. 
375 — 377,) we shall now demonstrate, that the rule of faith 
of all consistent Protestants, as stated in the sixth and 
twentieth of the Thirty-nine Articles, is strictly infallible ! 
The one saith, with St. Paul, Gal. i. 8, that no article of 
faith is to be received but what agrees with the gospel : the 
other is, no place in Scripture must be so expounded as to 
be repugnant to another! (p. 113.) Hence, as God's word 
in unison with itself is infallible truth, and as these two arti- 
cles are in perfect agreement with God's truth, so must it 
follow, that the Protestant rule of faith, set forth by these 
articles, is necessarily infallible. And hence, as the gospel 
must rule all, so must all her other articles, creeds, cate- 
chisms, sermons, writings, and all churches of all Protest- 
ants, and of others, stoop to and be ruled by these two 
articles of the established church, or otherwise be false and 
reprobate. It is conclusive, then, that the pope, his creed, 
and church must agree with these said two articles, i. e. 
with the gospel, or be eternally reprobate ! 

No informed, honest man can be a Priest ! — No ho- 
nest man can teach for truth what he knows is not truth : 
but the papal creed being opposed to the gospel, is not 
truth ; therefore can no such honest man be a priest to 
teach it. 

No sensible man can be a Roman Catholic ! — No man 
can serve two masters — opposed to each other : no sensible 
man would attempt it: but the pope and his faith are op- 
posed to Christ and his faith ; now, as no man can obey 
both, so can no sensible man be a Roman Catholic. 

The Church of Rome can never be reformed ! — The 
immutable prediction has testified. That a church would 
arise teaching idolatries and wicked doctrines, but shall in 
due time be utterly destroyed, even as a mill-stone is cast 
into the sea. This church hath idolatries and many dogmas 
opposed to the gospel, which all her clergy are bound by 



394 APPENDIX. 

solemn oath to teach unaltered forever ! Hence she hath 
fast bound herself to fulfil the dread prediction ! She, there- 
fore, can never be reformed ! and hence should all who care 
for their souls take warning and "flee out of her, that they 
receive not of her plagues." Rev. xviii. 4. 

Go forth, my artless book ; in Jesus' name, 

I cast thee on the waters. 

Go thy ways ; 

And if, as I believe, thy meaning's good. 

The world shall find thee, 

After many days.* 

* See Ovid. Trist. i. i. v. 1, et seq. 

Oct. 1827. 



GLOSSARY, 

To assist the Reader in the understanding of words chiefly 
connected with popish matters, some of which are not 
found in the work. 



Abbe. — The chief of an abbey, but a title extended to an 
ecclesiastic. 

Abbey. — A monastery of religious persons. 

Absolution. — A part of the sacrament of penance ; signi- 
fying the remission of sins. 

Acolyte. — One of the lower order in the Roman church. 

Agnus Dei. — A consecrated cake of wax stamped with 
the figure of a lamb, supposed to have great virtues. 

Alb. — A very ancient priestly vestment worn by ministers 
in the administration of the eucharist. 

All Saints. — A feast in honour of all the saints and mar- 
tyrs. 

Altars in the Romish church are built of stone, to repre- 
sent Christ, the foundation-stone of that spiritual building, 
the church. There are three steps to an altar, covered with 
carpet, and adorned with many costly ornaments, according 
to the season of the year. Bowing towards the altar pro- 
bably originated in the custom of the Jews bowing towards 
the mercy-seat. 

Anathema. — A curse pronounced by ecclesiastical au- 
thority. 

Annats or Annates. — A years' income, due, anciently, 
to the popes on the death of any bishop, , abbot, parish 
priest, &;c., to be paid by his successor. 

Annunciation. — A Christian festival celebrated on the 
25th of March, in memory of the annunciation or tichngs 
brought by the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary of the 

395 



396 GL'JSSARY. 

incarnation of Christ. On this festival, the pope performs 
the ceremony of marrying or cloistering; it began in the 
seventh century. 

Ash Wednesday. — The first day of Lent. It arose from 
a custom of the church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of 
such as were then admitted to penance. The ashes must 
be made of the olive tree, laid on the altar, blessed, and 
strewed on the heads of priests and laity. 

Augustines. — An order of religious who observe the rule 
of St. Augustine, properly called Austin friars. 

Auricular Confession. — Made in the ear privately. 

Auto da /e, or act of faith, is a solemn day held by the 
Inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and the absolu- 
tion of the innocent accused. 

Barnabas^ [St.) Day. — A festival celebrated on the 11th 
of June, in honour of the friend of the apostle Paul. 

Bartholomew's [St.) Day. — A festival celebrated on the 
24th of August ; St. Bartholomew was one of the twelve 
apostles. 

Beads-man^ from hede, a prayer, and from counting the 
beads. — A prayer-man, one who prays for another. 

Bead-Roll. — This was the catalogue of those who were 
to be mentioned at prayers. The king's enemies were thus 
cursed by name in the bead-roll at St. Paul's. 

Beatification. — The act by which the pope declares a 
person happy after death. 

Benedictines. — An order of monks who profess to follow 
the rules of St. Benedict. In the canon law they are called 
black monks, from the colour of their habit; in England 
they were called black friars. 

Benison. — A blessing. 

Bernardins. — A sect first made by Robert, Abbot of Mo- 
leme, and reformed by St. Bernard, Abbot of Clervaux. 
Their usual habit is a white gown. 

Bourdon. — A staff", or long walking-stick, used by pil- 
grims. 

Breviary. — The Roman Catholic Common Pray er-book^ 
generally in Latin. 

Briefs, apostolical, denote letters which the pope de- 
spatches to princes and other magistrates touching any pub- 
lic aff'air. 

Brothers. — Lay-brothers among the Romanists are those 



GLOSSARY. 397 

pious but illiterate persons who devote themselves, in some 
convent, to the service of the religious. 

Bull. — A written letter, despatched by order of the pope, 
from the Roman chancery, and sealed with lead. 

Bull in Coena Domini. Bull umgenitus. — A famous 
bull of Clement XL, beginning, ^^Unigenitus Dei FiliuSf^* 
i.e. "the only-begotten Son of God." 

Candle Votive.'— A customary offering to a saint, or even 
to God. 

Canon, i. e. rule ; it signifies such rules as are presented 
by councils concerning faith, discipline, and manners. 

Canons. — An order of religious, distinct from monks. 

Canonical Hours. — There were seven: — 1. Primes 
about six a. m. 2. Tierce, about nine. 3. Sext, about 
twelve at noon. 4. Nones, about two or three p. m. 5. Ves- 
pers, about four or later. 6. Complin^ about seven. 
7. Matins ; and Lauds at midnight. 

Canonization.— k. declaration of the pope, whereby, 
after much solemnity, any person who has lived an exem- 
plary life, and is reputed to have wrought miracles, is en- 
tered into the list of the saints. 

Cappellane. — A term applied to persons who had the care 
of things used in the different services, and simply meant 
custos or keepers. The word chaplain is derived from 
capellanus. 

Capuchin. — Religious of the order of St. Francis, so 
called from capuce or capuchon, a stuff cap or cowl with 
which they cover their heads. They are clothed with 
brown or gray, always barefooted, never go in a coach, nor 
even shave their beard. 

Cardinal. — More particularly used for an ecclesiastic 
prince, one who has a voice both active and passive in the 
Roman conclave at the election of a pope. 

Carmelites.— An order of religious, making one of the 
four tribes of mendicants or begging friars, taking their name 
from Carmel, a mountain in Syria, formerly inhabited by 
the prophets Elias and Elisha, and by the children of the 
prophets, from whom this order pretends to descend in an 
uninterrupted succession. 

Carthusians. — An order of religious, instituted by St 
Bruno about the year 1086, remarkable for the austerity of 
their rule, which obliges them to a perpetual solitude, a 
34 



398 GLOSSARY. 

total abstinence from flesh, even at tLe peril of their lives, 
and absolute silence, except at certain times. Their houses 
were usually built in deserts, their fare coarse, and discipline 
severe. 

Cathedral. — A church wherein a bishop has a see or seat 

Catholic. — Universal or general. 

Cestertian Monks. — A religious order founded in th 
ninth century by St. Robert, a Benedictine and Abbot of 
Moleme. 

Chalice. — The cup or vessel used to administer the win 
in the eucharist, and, by the Romanists, in the mass. 

Charity of our Lady. — Religious hospitallers ; an order 
founded about the end of the thirteenth century. 

Charity of St. Hippolytus. — A similar order, founded 
1585, for the purpose of serving the poor. 

Chasuble. — See Planeta. 

Childermas Day, called, also. Innocents' Day, held De- 
cember the 28th, in memory of Herod's slaughter of the 
children. 

Chrism. — Oil consecrated by the bishop on holy Thurs- 
day, with great ceremony. 

Christmas [Christi missa,) that is, the mass of Christ. — 
A festival, celebrated December the 25th, to commemorate 
the birth of Christ. 

Chrysom. — A white linen cloth used in baptism. 

Church. — A religious assembly, or, sometimes, the large 
fair building where it meets ; in some places, the pope and 
a general council. 

Cloister. — A religious house. 

College. — A society of men set apart for learning or re- 
ligion, and, also, the house in which they reside. 

Colobium. — A tunic or robe. 

Commandery. — A body of the knights of Malta, belong- 
ing to the same nation. 

Commendam, in the church of Rome, is a real title of a 
regular benefice, such as an abbey or priory given by the 
pope to a secular clerk, or even to a layman, with power to 
dispose of the fruits thereof during life. 

Communion. — The being united in doctrine and dis- 
cipline. 

Complin. — The last act of worship before going to bed. 

Conclave, — The place in which the cardinals of the Ro- 



GLOSSARY. 399 

mish church meet, and are shut up, m order to the election 
of a pope. 

Conjiteor. — A general confession of sins. 

Confirmation, or imposition of hands by a bishop, given 
after baptism. It was a sacrament in the Melenesian coun- 
cil. According to the church of Rome, it makes the reci- 
pients of it perfect Christians. 

Consistory. — A college of cardinals, or the pope's senate 
and council, before whom judiciary causes are pleaded. 

Cope. — An ecclesiastical habit. It was, at first, a com- 
mon habit, being a coat without sleeves, but was afterwards 
used as a church vestment, only made very rich by em- 
broidery and the like. The Greeks pretend it was first used 
in memory of the mock-robe put upon our Saviour. 

Corporal, — A fair linen cloth thrown over the consecrated 
elements at the celebration of the eucharist. 

Coul or Cowl. — A sort of monkish habit worn by the 
Barnardines and Benedictines. Some have distinguished 
two forms of cowls, the one a gown reaching to the feet, 
having sleeves and a capuchin, used in ceremonies ; the 
other, a kind of hood to work in, called, also, scapular, be- 
cause it only covers the head and shoulders. 

Council. — An ecclesiastical meeting, especially of bishops 
and other doctors, deputed by divers churches for examining 
of ecclesiastical causes. 

Cramp Rings. — Rings consecrated on Good Friday, and 
used for preventing the cramp. 

Croisade, Cruzade, Cruzado, and Crusade. — A holy 
war, or an expedition against infidels and heretics, par- 
ticularly against the Turks for the recovery of Palestine. 

Crosier. — The pastoral staff, so called from its likeness 
to a cross, which the bishops formerly bore as the common 
ensign of their office, and by the delivery of which they 
were invested in their prelacies. 

Cross, Creeping to. — The creeping to the cross was a 
popish ceremony of penance. 

Crucifix. — A representation, in picture or statuary, of our 
Lord's passion. 

Curiall. — A class of officers attached to the pope's 
court. 

Dalmatica. — A vestment or habit of a bishop and deacon, 
so called because it was at first invented in Dalmatia. ll 



400 GLOSSARY. 

had sleeves to distinguish it from the collobium, which nad 
none. It was all white before, but behind had two purple 
lines, or stripes. 

Datary. — An officer in the pope's court, alwaj'^s a prelate 
and sometimes a cardinal, deputed by the pope to receive 
such petitions as are presented to him touching the provision 
of benefices. This officer has a substitute, but he cannot 
confer any benefice. 

Decree. — An ordinance enacted by the pope, by and with 
the advice of his cardinals in council assembled, without 
being consulted by any person thereon. 

Decretal. — The collection of the decrees of the pope. 

Dirige. — A solemn service in the Romish church ; hence, 
probably, our Dirge. 

Dispensation. — Permission from the pope to do what 
may have been forbidden. 

Dominicans. — An order of religious, called, in some 
places, Jacobins, Predicants, or preaching friars. They 
take their name from Dominic de Guzman, born in 1170, 
at Calarvega, in Old Castile. This order is difiused through- 
out the whole known world. 

Emher Weeks or Days. — Fasts observed four times in 
the year, that is, on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 
after the first Sunday in Lent; after Whit-Sunday; after 
the 14th of September; and after the 13th of December. 
Some derive the term from ember, a German word, which 
signifies abstinence ; others, from one which signifies ashes, 
because it was customary with the ancients to accompany 
their fastings with sprinkling of ashes or sitting upon them ; 
and others, from a Saxon word signifying course or circuit, 
these fasts returning every year in regular courses. 

Epiphany, called, also, the manifestation of Christ to the 
Gentiles. — Observed on the 6th of January. 

Eucharist. — A name for the Lord's supper. 

Eulogise Privatse. — Consecrated loaves, sent by bishops 
and priests, who had taken the sacrament, to one another 
in token of communion. 

Excommunication. — An ecclesiastical penalty, whereby 
those who incur the guilt of any heinous sin are separated 
from the communion of the church. 

Exorcist. — One who, by adjurations, prayers, or reli 
yious acts, drives away malignant spirits. 



GLOSSARY. 401 

Extreme Unchon. — One of the sacraments of the Ro- 
mish church, administered to the dying, consisting of 
anointing with holy oil, and praying. 

Feasts of God. — Fetes de Dieu. A solemn festival in 
the Romish church, instituted for the performing a peculiar 
kind of worship to our Saviour in the eucharist. 

Fiancels. — Betrothing. — A ceremony performed by the 
priest, after which an oath was administered " to take the 
woman to wife within forty days, if holy church will per- 
mit." 

Franciscans. — A powerful order of religious in the Ro- 
man church, following the rules of St. Francis. 

Friary. — A monastery or convent of friars. 

Gipciere. — A small satchel, wallet, or purse. 

Good Friday. — A fast in memory of the sufferings and 
death of Christ. 

Graal. — The Saint GraaU or holy vessel, was supposed 
to have been the vessel in which the paschal lamb was 
placed at our Saviour's last supper. 

Grayle. — An ecclesiastical book used in the Romish 
church. 

Heretics. — A name given to those who teach opinions 
contrary to the established faith of Rome. 

Hierachy. — A sacred government or ecclesiastical esta- 
blishment. 

I. H. S. and /. N. R. I. — Letters on the wafer that signify 
Jesus hominum Salvator^ "Jesus the Saviour of men," 
and Jesus Nazarenus^ Rex Judaeorum, " Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the King of the Jews," being the initials of the Latin 
words. 

Incense. — A rich perfume, burning of itself, or exhaled 
by fire. 

Indulgence. — In the Romish theology, the remission of 
a punishment due to sin, granted by the church, and sup- 
posed to save the sinner from purgatory. 

In petto. — Held in reserve. 

Inquisition. The court in popish countries which has 
been established for the detection of what they call he- 
resies. 

Interdict. — A censure inflicted by popes or bishops, sus- 
pending the priests from their functions, and consequently 
the performance of divine service. An interdict forbids 
34* 



402 GLOSSARr. 

the performance of divine service in the place interdicted. 
This ecclesiastical censure has frequently been executed in 
France, Italy, and Germany; and, in the year 1170, pope 
Alexander III. put all England under an interdict, forbid- 
ding the clergy to perform any part of divine service, 
except baptizing infants, taking confessions, and giving 
absolution to dying penitents ; but this censure being liable 
to ill consequences, promoting libertinism and neglect of 
religion, the succeeding popes have very seldom made use 
of it. 

Tntroit. — The beginning of public devotions among the 
Papists. 

Jesuits. — A famous religious order in the Romish church, 
founded by Ignatius Loyala, a Spaniard, 1491. 

Jubilee. — A grand church solemnity, or ceremony, cele- 
brated at Rome, wherein the pope grants a plenary indul- 
gence to all sinners who visit the churches of St. Peter and 
St. Paul at Rome. 

Kirsome, from Chrysome, and used to signify Christian. 

Kyrie Eleison. — " Lord, have mercy upon me !" a form 
of prayer often used. 

Lammas Day. — August 1. Celebrated in the Romish 
church, in memory of St. Peter's imprisonment. 

Legate, from legatus, a Latin word. — A cardinal or 
bishop, whom the pope sends as his ambassador to sove- 
reign princes. 

Lent, quadragesima. — A time of mortification, during 
the space of forty days, wherein the people are enjoined to 
fast, in commemoration of our Saviour's fasting in the 
desert. 

Liturgy has a restricted meaning among the Romanists, 
and is more especially confined to the mass, denoting the 
ceremonies then performed. 

Magdalen {St.) the religious of. — A denomination given 
to many communities of nuns, consisting generally of peni- 
tent courtesans. 

Malison. — A curse. 

Manipule. — A handkerchief which the priests in the 
primitive church wore on the arm, to wipe off their tears 
for the sins of the people. 

Mass. — The office or prayers used in the Romish church 
at the celebration of the eucharist. 



GLOSSARY. 403 

Maundy Thursday .—The Thursday before Easter, so 
called from the Saxon maunday, a basket, say some ; from 
the French, say others ; but more probably from the Latin 
dies mandati, that is, the day of command to commemorate 
the charge given by our Saviour to his disciples before his 
last supper. 

Mendicants. — Beggars. There are four principal orders 
of friar-mendicants ; that is, the Carmelites, Jacobins, 
Franciscans, and Augustines. With these rank the Capu- 
chins, &c. 

Miracle. — A prodigy. Some effect of which does not 
follow from the known laws of nature. 

Miserere. — A lamentation. The beginning of the 51st 
or 54th penitential psalm. 

Month'' s Mmd. — A solemn office for the repose of the 
soul, performed one month after decease. 

Mortmain. — A law to prevent property falling into the 
hands of idle ecclesiastics. 

Mortuaries. — A corse present, and made as a recom- 
pense for any deficiency in the payment of tithes and obla- 
tions. 

Mothering. — A visiting of the mother church to make 
offerings at the high altar. 

Novice. — One who has entered a religious house, but not 
yet taken the vow. 

Novitiate. — The time spent in a religious house, by way 
of trial, before a vow is taken. 

Nun. — A woman secluded in a cloister from the world. 
Nuncio. — An ambassador from the pope to some Catholic 
prince or state. 

Obit. — A funeral celebration or office for the dead. 
Oblatse. — Bread made without leaven and not consecrated, 
yet blessed upon the altar; anciently placed upon the breasts 
of the dead. 

Oriel. — A portico or court; also, a small dining-room, 
near the hall, in monasteries. 

Pall. — A pontifical garment worn by popes, &c., over 
the other garments, as a sign of their jurisdiction. 

Palm Sunday. — The Sunday next before Easter, kep* 
in memory of the triumphant entry of Christ into Jeru- 
salem. 



404 GLOSSARY. 

Palmer. — A. wandering votary of religion, vowed to have 
no settled home. 

Papalin. — A Papist. 

Pardoner. — A person who was licensed to sell papal 
indulgences. 

Pasch Eggs. — Easter eggs, from pascha — the pascha, 
the passover. 

Passion Week. — The week preceding Easter, so called 
from our Saviour's passion, crucifixion, Slc. 

Paten. — A little plate used in the sacrament of the eu- 
charist. 

Paternosters. — Chaplets of beads, worn by nuns round 
their necks. 

Patriarch. — A bishop superior to archbishops. 

Pax or Paxis, alias,, an instrument of peace. — A small 
plate of silver or gold, with a crucifix engraved or raised 
upon it, which, in the ceremony of the mass, was presented 
by the deacon to be kissed by the priest, and then to be 
handed round and kissed by the people, who delivered it to 
each other, saying, "Peace be with you." It is said to be 
now disused. 

Pax. — The vessel in which the consecrated host is kept. 

Penance. — Infliction, public or private, suffered as an 
expression of repentance for sin. 

Peter-pence. — An annual payment, made in commemora- 
tion of Peter's bonds. 

Piscinae. — Sinks where the priest emptied the water in 
which he washed his hands, and all consecrated waste stuff 
was poured out. 

Pittance. — The allowance of meat distributed in a mo- 
nastery. 

Pix or Pyx. — The box or shrine in which the conse- 
crated host is kept. 

Placebo. — The vesper hymn for the dead. 

Planeta. — Gown, the same as the chasuble ; a kind of 
cape, open only at the sides, worn at mass. 

Plenary. — Full, complete : used as an adjective to indul- 
gence. 

Pope. — The name given to the Bishop of Rome. 

Portesse, Portasse, Portese, Porthose, 8fc. — A breviary, 
a portable book of prayers. 

Preceptory. — A seminary of instruction. 



GLOSSARY. 4tf^^' 

' Priory. — A convent, in dignity below an abbey. 

Purgatory. — A place in which souls are supposed by 
the Papists to be purged by fire from carnal impurities, be- 
fore they are received into heaven. 

Requiem. — A hymn imploring for the dead requiem or 
rest. 

Reredoss. — The screen supporting the rood-loft. 

Rocket. — The bishop's black satin vestment, worn with 
the lawn sleeves. 

Rood. — An image of Christ on the cross. 

Rood-loft. — In churches, the place where the cross stood. 

Rosary. — A chaplet or string of beads, on which prayers 
are numbered. 

Sacring, Saunce, or Saints^ Bell. — A small bell which 
called to prayers and other holy offices. 

Sanctus Black. — A burlesque hymn in ridicule of the 
sanctus of the Roman church. 

Saviour, Order of our. — A religious order so called, 
founded 1344, under the rule of St. Augustine. 

Scapular, or Scapulary. — A badge of peculiar veneration 
for the blessed mother of God. It forms a part of the habit 
of several orders of religious, worn over the gown ; it con- 
sists of two narrow breadths or slips of cloth, covering the 
back and the breast, and hanging down to the feet of a 
professed religious, and to the knees of the lay brothers. 
Of the scapular there is a friary or fraternity, consisting of 
lay brothers, who profess a particular devotion to the virgin, 
and who, in honour of her, wear a little scapular, in manner 
of a bracelet or otherwise, as a substitute for the great one. 
They are obliged to have certain prayers, and observe cer- 
tain austerities in their manner of life. The devotees of the 
scapular celebrate their festival on the 10th of July. 

Sclavina. — A long gown worn by pilgrims. 

Shrift or Shrive. — Confession to a priest. 

Sins, the seven deadly. — Pride, idleness, envy, murder, 
covetousness, lust, gluttony. 

Soutane. — A cassock. 

Suffragan. — A bishop considered as subject to the me- 
tropolitan bishop. 

Sword, swearing upon a. — A solemn oath, upon a sword 
taken by the crusaders. 

Thurible. — A censer or smoke-pot to bum incense in. 



406 GLOSSARY. 

Tierce, the office of. — Prayers intended to return God 
thanks for the sanctification of his church by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Tonsure. — The particular manner of shaving, as practised 
by the religious orders of the Papists. 

Vulgate. — A very ancient Latin translation of the Bible, 
and the only one which the church of Rome acknowledges 
to be authentic. 

Unhouselled. — Without receiving the sacrament. 

Ursulines. — An order of nuns, who observe the rule of 
St. Augustine ; chiefly noted for educating young maidens. 
They take their name from their institutrix, St. Ursula, and 
are clothed in white and black. 

Weeping-Cross. — A cross where penitents offered their 
devotions. 



THE END. 



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